The Life of a Nice Person

When we judge ourselves to have taken the high road, made right choices, been a good person, and our lives fall apart, a common reaction is to think, "How could this happen to ME?" As children we learned to behave well so that bad things wouldn't happen to us, and suddenly the world no longer operates that way! Being a grown-up isn't all it's cracked up to be, is it?

Part of becoming mature is finding a degree of acceptance of life as it is, rather than focusing on how it could have been or should have been. This isn't so easy. Believing in God can make it easier or harder, depending on your train of thought. If you think, "God, I'm one of your kids; how could you let this happen to me? I thought you loved me," faith makes it harder. You tend to stay stuck in that spin cycle of "why-me-not-me-God, how-could-you?" You are operating on the false assumption that believers get some sort of special gate pass to an easier road than everyone else.

Unfortunately, there is no golden ticket to a fun trip through our earth life. Being "good" or "nice" is not some sort of protective suit that deflects enemy attacks. While it's fun to imagine we have that kind of power, that's all it is, wishful thinking. In the real world, being nice or good does not buy us a charmed life. Can you accept that? This is one of those "childish things" I Corinthians could refer to that we have to lay aside in order to grow up.

This is how I would go about it. I would go to God and just lay myself open before him, the good the bad and the ugly: admit my childish thinking and expectations, admit that I don't want to give them up, admit that I hold the tiniest bit of resentment against him--OK then if we're being completely honest here, a considerable amount of resentment!, and I would go ahead and whine, yell, cry and throw my tantrum. When I had said it all, I would feel my helplessness and sadness, and I would also feel his tenderness toward me. I would give it all to him and let him enfold me in his arms of love. And I would rest there. That's when being a person of faith makes it easier.

Happy New Year

I have some thoughts to share with you heading into this new year 2011, and some great quotes. I think it's going to be a wonderful year, yet the unknown sometimes scares us. We want to know, and we don't. "No one knows what the next year will bring, but one thing is sure. He will be with us and He is enough" (Amy Carmichael).

Whatever losses we may have experienced already or are anxious about in our future, it's time to let go. It's always time to let go! We have a hard time with this, and so we have to do it over and over again. We can't change anything by clutching at things or people, but it doesn't stop us from trying! My favorite quote on letting go: "If you lose your reason, lose it into the hands of God. It's the only place where anything is safe" (Elizabeth Goudge, The Scent of Water). I have often made substitutions: If you lose your children, lose them into the hands of God. If you lose your joy, lose it into the hands of God. For me, this act of letting go produces peace, as I re-orient myself once again to the fact that God can be trusted when all else cannot. There is tremendous comfort and power in letting go purposefully, letting go--not that what you love will be released untethered into the vast darkness of endless space, but rather--into the safety of God's love and wisdom and timing.

And finally: "I said to the man at the gate of the year, 'Give me a light that I may go forth into the unknown.' And the man replied, 'Put your hand into the hand of God. That shall be to you better than a light, safer than a known way.'" (King George)

We are on a sort of safari into the wilds of our own lives. The crucial thing is to stay close to our Guide, and follow His map. He is the one that gets us through safely. He is the one who can be trusted.

NEWS BULLETIN!

As Real As Apples, Brynn's new volume of poetry, will be available in 6-8 weeks at major online retailers. The story of her love affair with the Lord, the book should come out just in time for Valentine's Day!

What God Says

Whatever is in your past, whatever challenges or disasters have plagued you in this past year or years, as we close out 2010, stop listening to despairing thoughts and fearful refrains. Listen instead to what God says:

"But this is a people plundered and looted; they are all of them trapped in holes and hidden in prisons; they have become plunder with none to rescue, spoil with none to say,

'Restore!'"

Isa. 42:22

"But forget all that...It is nothing compared to what I am going to do.

For I am about to do something new.

See, I have already begun! Do you not see it?

I will make a pathway through the wilderness.

I will create rivers in the dry wasteland."

Isa. 43:18,19

"Nothing is impossible with God."

Lk. 1:37

Nothing!

If I Could Just Understand!

Not understanding what's happening, and why, is one of the hardest challenges we face in life. When something goes wrong, we immediately want to know, "Why?" If we can't figure it out, it can be hard to recover, and it can be hard to let go of pain and sadness.

The thing is, God doesn't always tell us why; in fact, he usually doesn't. His thinking is so different from ours. He says, "Trust in me with all your heart, and don't depend on your own understanding." (Pr. 3:5)

When we finally manage to relinquish control of our lives, when we relax into him with trust and faith, we can also give up the quest to understand everything. "Since the Lord is directing our steps, why try to understand everything that happens along the way?" (Pr. 20:24)