Help me to remember that our lives are filled with days and moments--some joyous, others grievous; some sunny, others rainy; some a delightful path, others a painful path; some full of clarity and light, others confusing, doubt-filled and dark.
And help me to remember--despite my all my all-too-often vacillating emotions and fickle heart--that You are in every single one of those moments...working, shaping, teaching, moulding, correcting, encouraging, forgiving, and loving. Even when we cannot see You or feel You. Even when we cry out in faithlessness and despair: "Where are you Father? Don't You see? Don't you care?"
Because You do. You always do--in every single joyful, painful, celebratory, and sorrowful moment of our lives.
You are always and forever there. Our immovable, immutable, indefatigable Rock.
It's funny how God teaches us through all kinds of things, people, places, and even pets! And yes, you might have guessed it was coming--through sports. Oh my, our Father uses anything and everything to squeeze out that selfishness and sin and grow us increasingly into the beautiful image of His Son.
But sometimes the process is so hard...especially on those kinds of days and moments. Those days when all you can see around you are black clouds and fog...and the sun seems like a vanished figment of your imagination. Yet even when we cannot see or feel or even dream of it--that sun is still there. Still shining up above the clouds. Just as the Son is forever there...and is forever working.
Yesterday, our son's golf team from Broughton High School won the State 4A golf championship. And yes, in the big picture, it's mighty unimportant. And yes, in light of all that is going on in the world, it's a mighty shallow thing. But in our little world, it was simply unabashed joy and overflowing gratitude.
Because here's the thing: we well remember what it was like to lose. To lose big. Not just in last year's golf championship--which we did lose in a big, fat way. But for our son, Preyer, it was a whole long, hot, discouraging, losing summer. He was changing his swing, and for whatever reason, he struggled--and I mean struggled--in about every tournament in which he played. I even wrote about it last summer, because as parents, it broke our hearts. He kept practicing long and hard till his hands blistered...yet more struggle and failure. But he never gave up. Never quit. Never gave in to discouragement, even though I surely did on more than one occasion. You could often see the disappointment and confusion in his eyes, but he kept trying with seemingly no happy end in sight.
Isn't that often how it is with all of us? No end in sight. No breaks in the clouds. No respite for our weariness or weakness or worries.
But God kept working...on our son and on us. Oh boy, did God work on us. Reminding us that His ways are not our ways. That He uses our failures and falls, our weaknesses and worries for far greater things, and in far greater ways, than we can possibly imagine. That our Lord isn't interested in creating shallow shiny little successes of our children...but in crafting them into deep, strong men and women of character and substance and faith. Oh forgive me Father that in my sinful pride and shallow desires, I would often settle for so much less of my children by wanting them to be happy rather than holy, successful rather than sanctified.
But the point is--God is in all our days and all our moments. He's using them all. And when we're in the middle of dark days and discouraging moments, we've got got got to counsel our hearts to wait upon God. To trust Him. To know that He's working and moving and will one day bring us back out into the light and into those spacious places of joy and peace and hope. He does it in superficial things like golf...and in serious things like prodigals and disease and disaster.
Oh how I love the way the Psalmist puts it: "I waited patiently for the Lord; He inclined to me and heard my cry. He drew me up from the pit of destruction, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure. He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear and put their trust in the Lord. Blessed is the man who makes the Lord his trust, who does not turn to the proud, to those who go astray after a lie! You have multiplied, O Lord my God, Your wondrous deeds and Your thoughts toward us; none can compare with You! I will proclaim and tell of them, yet they are more than can be told." (Ps.40:1-5)
That's exactly what I'm trying to do--to proclaim God's goodness and grace, in the bad...and the good. In the shadow...and in the light. In the losing...and in the winning. In the receiving...and in the waiting.
So thank You, Father, for these moments of glorious happiness! Thank You for the memory of that amazing group of young men jumping into the lake after their win. Thank You for the their friendships. Thank You for their wonderful coaches. Thank You for it all! Help me to remember their smiles, their laughter, their satisfied and relieved expressions.
Might we never forget--no matter what any of us might be going through now or in the future--our God is good and great and gracious and glorious. And He will never ever fail us. No, not ever.
Keep trusting Him in the dark...for He has promised "The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it." (John 1:5) The Light of the World will one day again shine brightly in your world--He said so. And His Words never ever ever fail. Not a single one of them.
To God be the glory.
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