It is difficult to rattle me, but yesterday I suppose I was rattled. I simply had way more to do than I could do and every conversation with an employee, phone call, text, and/or e-mail seemed to make things worse, (and there were plenty of all of the above). The stress seemed monumental and I felt like screaming.
I was telling a friend that I felt so sorry for myself that I could just cry and asked him if he wanted to come to my pity party. The big rat unsympathetically said, “No”.
Sigh…
My friend Bill Glass has a saying in his prison ministry that he booms out at appropriate times when satan is attacking us from all angles and throwing up roadblocks at every turn and generally making our lives miserable as we try to enter prisons and witness to prisoners. He not so eloquently bellows out in his deep baritone voice to all who are discouraged, “Suck it up!”
Hmmm…If he wasn’t six foot four and known as one of the toughest defensive ends in NFL history, I might be tempted to take exception to that remark, but I think I’ll just let it slide for now.
Doggone it I want some sympathy! No one seems to care but me and it’s lonely at my little pity party with just me here.
What’s that?
I think I just heard a soft voice say, “I’m here”.
Is that you Jesus?
“I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
No offense to Bill Glass, but I like that a lot better than “Suck it up”.
It’s comforting to me to know that Jesus is always with me even to the end of the age. The problem is that too often I want to rely solely on my own wiles to solve my difficult problems. Without Him I am nothing – that is the name of a gospel song that seems to resonate in this situation and I need to keep that foremost in my mind.
Sometimes I have trouble communicating with my sons. I have a lifetime of experience and many lofty accomplishments, and I’m often asked to consult and lecture by some of the top movers and shakers in the country, but it seems to me that my own sons would prefer to take advice from a hobo on the street rather than ask me for advice about anything.
I wonder if that is how God perceives us. He is the wisest of the wise, all powerful Creator of everything, and loves us more than we have the capacity to understand, but it seems we prefer to listen to the fools of this world, and airhead/talking heads on television shows and rely on our own weak flesh rather than approach Him.
Selah…Stop, rest, and meditate on this. (It makes no sense to do this…)
God is not only approachable, but He earnestly wants to help; however, ever the consummate Gentleman that He is, He patiently waits for us to first ask for His help…
Often when I’ve blown it I’m too embarrassed to approach God, but that is the very time that I need to do so. Many people seem to be afraid of God. They see themselves as unworthy or too sinful to be in His presence, but the Bible tells us to “draw near to God with a sincere heart full of assurance of faith” (Hebrews 10:22).
If there is one thing for which we can be absolutely sure in life, God does not turn away people who earnestly seek him. What stops people from seeking after God? Mostly, I think it is that they are not sure whether God will accept them or not.
Perish that thought:
Hebrews 4:16
“Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”