Sometimes in life, there’s moments when you can get overwhelemed. No matter how good you are, how great things are going, or how planned out you have it, sometimes it just comes outta nowhere. Sunny days can turn to cloudy days real fast. Sometimes its not overwhelming, sometimes its underwhelming. Life has its wierd twists and turns like that.
Yesterday I found myself asking God to bring some kind of clarity to the last few years of my life. When all the drama broke in CFC I felt my heart break along with it. And I heard myself saying a prayer (along with many others), that went something along the lines of, Lord please don’t let the last few years be a waste. In more or less words, please don’t tell me I wased 4 years of my life, right after college, as a Full Time Worker. Crazy that you can think that right? After sacrificing so much, and going through such an incredible journey as a missionary, all sorts of crazy things pop into your head when stuff like this happens.
People are dumb. People don’t listen. People don’t love. People misunderstand one another. People are selfish. People make decisions for the wrong reasons. People are power seeking.
But people are human. People are not God. God is God. And we are not.
Sometimes we gotta take a step back and see that we’re only human here. That we’re only acting in the best capacity we know how – and that is to be human. God made us to be human, with all our imperfections, our selfishness, our stupidness… and that’s exactly the way God wants us. God in fact, loves us that way.
Life is hard. Life is full of trials. Each person has their own set of memories – good times, bad times, joys, hurts – all wrapped up in their own little mind. Trials come and trials go, replaced daily by more trials. But isn’t that what life is all about? Answer the challenge to conquer those trials. Something that is innate in the human spirit is that of survival, and the will to succeed in the face of adversity.
Ironic that this category is called God glasses. This was something I used to tell my youth to do all the time, especially when they were having relationship troubles. To see things through God’s eyes. The other night I realized that maybe I should put them on in my own life, and see that I didn’t waste my time here. That I’ve said alot of good things to lot of good people. And I made a difference in people’s lives. Good people. Good kids. And that is worth all the difference.
I think this is what hope is all about. Putting on the God glasses. Because as a human, at any one moment, you can only see one part of this gigantic puzzle we call life. And this lack of clarity causes us to jump and overreact and make uninformed decisions.
But God sees the whole picture. God, in fact, made the picture. And if we could just see what He sees, if we could just wrap our finite little minds around his infinite plan, if only for one, brief, fleeting instant…
…we would hope.
And we would hope. And we would love. And everything would be ok. And my problems wouldn’t be problems because God has a plan for that. And I know its stupid to think ‘this’ because in the long run God solves that problem. And what’s drama except a lesson that we haven’t learned yet.
I know that my life is not a waste because I am still desperately seeking God. And I know that this community will be ok because there are others who are also. There are others who are so pure of heart and intention, that there is no way but God’s way working through them.
Friends, there is hope. Put on your God glasses.
