In the suffering is Him….big or small suffering He meets us/me. The whole JOY in suffering.....
Having lived trying to escape or buffer any kind of suffering this is a hard lesson learned…..
We'd like to have it all neat and orderly. We want to be able to measure it and control it, but the reality is that Jesus is a mystery. The Christian faith is a mystery. The disciples spent their entire time following him going, "Uhh, what the heck are you doing? We don't understand what you're doing and we don't know why you're doing it." And when he would explain why he was doing it, they still didn't get it. - Mike Yaconelli
So in the escaping was not trusting the God of the universe (self protection) …..Hey I still WANT to escape but more and more in the resting, waiting on Him there is more peace and contentment than I ever knew existed….and when you don’t run away there does tend to be more opportunities for ‘suffering’.
Numbers 20: 1 In the first month the whole Israelite community arrived at the Desert of Zin, and they stayed at Kadesh. There Miriam died and was buried.
2 Now there was no water for the community, and the people gathered in opposition to Moses and Aaron. 3 They quarreled with Moses and said, "If only we had died when our brothers fell dead before the LORD! 4 Why did you bring the LORD's community into this desert, that we and our livestock should die here? 5 Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to this terrible place? It has no grain or figs, grapevines or pomegranates. And there is no water to drink!"
6 Moses and Aaron went from the assembly to the entrance to the Tent of Meeting and fell facedown, and the glory of the LORD appeared to them. 7 The LORD said to Moses, 8 "Take the staff, and you and your brother Aaron gather the assembly together. Speak to that rock before their eyes and it will pour out its water. You will bring water out of the rock for the community so they and their livestock can drink."
9 So Moses took the staff from the LORD's presence, just as he commanded him. 10 He and Aaron gathered the assembly together in front of the rock and Moses said to them, "Listen, you rebels, must we bring you water out of this rock?" 11 Then Moses raised his arm and struck the rock twice with his staff. Water gushed out, and the community and their livestock drank.
12 But the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, "Because you did not trust in me enough to honor me as holy in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this community into the land I give them."
Psalm 28: 7 The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and I am helped. My heart leaps for joy and I will give thanks to him in song.
Mark 5: 6 When he saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and fell on his knees in front of him. 7He shouted at the top of his voice, "What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? Swear to God that you won't torture me!" 8For Jesus had said to him, "Come out of this man, you evil spirit!"
Mark 5: 32 But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. 33Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. 34 He said to her, "Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering."
As I read all the above I am struck with awe…Moses taking it just another step further beyond what God said to do….David who screwed up royally knowing God……that demons are afraid of Jesus….that faith in Him is so amazingly powerful……
We'd like to have it all neat and orderly. We want to be able to measure it and control it, but the reality is that Jesus is a mystery. The Christian faith is a mystery. The disciples spent their entire time following him going, "Uhh, what the heck are you doing? We don't understand what you're doing and we don't know why you're doing it." And when he would explain why he was doing it, they still didn't get it. - Mike Yaconelli
So in the escaping was not trusting the God of the universe (self protection) …..Hey I still WANT to escape but more and more in the resting, waiting on Him there is more peace and contentment than I ever knew existed….and when you don’t run away there does tend to be more opportunities for ‘suffering’.
Numbers 20: 1 In the first month the whole Israelite community arrived at the Desert of Zin, and they stayed at Kadesh. There Miriam died and was buried.
2 Now there was no water for the community, and the people gathered in opposition to Moses and Aaron. 3 They quarreled with Moses and said, "If only we had died when our brothers fell dead before the LORD! 4 Why did you bring the LORD's community into this desert, that we and our livestock should die here? 5 Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to this terrible place? It has no grain or figs, grapevines or pomegranates. And there is no water to drink!"
6 Moses and Aaron went from the assembly to the entrance to the Tent of Meeting and fell facedown, and the glory of the LORD appeared to them. 7 The LORD said to Moses, 8 "Take the staff, and you and your brother Aaron gather the assembly together. Speak to that rock before their eyes and it will pour out its water. You will bring water out of the rock for the community so they and their livestock can drink."
9 So Moses took the staff from the LORD's presence, just as he commanded him. 10 He and Aaron gathered the assembly together in front of the rock and Moses said to them, "Listen, you rebels, must we bring you water out of this rock?" 11 Then Moses raised his arm and struck the rock twice with his staff. Water gushed out, and the community and their livestock drank.
12 But the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, "Because you did not trust in me enough to honor me as holy in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this community into the land I give them."
Psalm 28: 7 The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and I am helped. My heart leaps for joy and I will give thanks to him in song.
Mark 5: 6 When he saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and fell on his knees in front of him. 7He shouted at the top of his voice, "What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? Swear to God that you won't torture me!" 8For Jesus had said to him, "Come out of this man, you evil spirit!"
Mark 5: 32 But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. 33Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. 34 He said to her, "Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering."
As I read all the above I am struck with awe…Moses taking it just another step further beyond what God said to do….David who screwed up royally knowing God……that demons are afraid of Jesus….that faith in Him is so amazingly powerful……
2 comments:
bjk,
This was my thought for today, too. I am sometimes so tired of the hurt, so tempted to go back to my habit of escaping, and I wonder if it's really worth it, if I'm just a fool to stand here open to the pain I have been hiding from all my life. Pride, Loneliness, and Reason begin to assault my fine ideals and I cower. Then Love rises up to answer those three, and I remember the breaking of the alabaster, and the "Why this waste?", and suddenly I am ashamed.
"Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof: And the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit." (Ecclesiastes 6:8)
B,
This really got to me. I was just thinking to myself - am I ever going to stop trying to cover the pain and if not will I end up dying after spending my whole life in this horrible in between place rather than just accepting I will never KNOW it all and never FULLY experiencing what it means to be content in God.
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