Sometimes things just get…complicated. We wrestle to be
free, like the proverbial fly caught in the spider web. (Eww… I just compared
myself to a fly… why couldn’t it be a butterfly?) When we finally give up, or
are about to…and sit still long enough, we realize it was hopeless all along,
and only one thing can save us: Calling out to God.
‘How can I be so stupid?’ I momentarily muse; then remember
quickly that my adversary has great skill at this, and can use 14-year old boys
of small stature to bring down giants as much as God can.
“Why do I hate enforcing rules?” I asked my wise and
wonderful daughter last night. It was a bit rhetorical; I just wanted her to know
that I recognize my fault, my struggling and striving and failing.
“Because you hate having to HAVE rules, and so do I.” That’s
pretty much the story. I’m not a rule follower; I keep in my heart what is
right and true and endeavor to live in that relationship of Love. I just don’t
understand why anyone would think there is any other way worth living. So, there it is:
reasoning with the unreasonable. Light dawns: Some folks just want to do wrong
and get away with it. For them, it’s a game to see how much they can get. And
when someone is yielding to that, there is no reasoning. Trying to do so sucks
you right into the web and they sit there smiling smugly at you thinking they have won.
So, God reveals I had already set the bar and
somehow he slipped under it all the time. And such great peace follows! I am free! Free of the pondering and wondering and struggling! Free to think and ponder the other things God now wants to reveal:
Things like going to the big Christmas ‘production’ and
never once feeling a tinge of wishing and hoping that I was part of it...Things
like the assurance that I chose the right path...Things like (do I dare say it?)
learning to play the guitar and maybe even the keyboard, and sing God’s songs
in the simplest, purest way possible! These marvelous thoughts reveal things I once considered
impossible, as if a veil has been removed.
Some might call it God’s timing, but I see it as the
wonderous work of being brought from faith to faith and glory to glory … of
being able to yield, more and more, through the circumstances of my life, to
the God who makes Himself real and worthy of my love and devotion, day by day.
“So all of us who have had that
veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord--who is
the Spirit--makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious
image. (2 Cor. 3:18 NLT)
So, on this kick-back Saturday morning as I give quiet time to the Creator who lives in me, I am so grateful for the things he has taught me and brought me through. I am grateful for His skill at untangling webs and cutting me loose once more! I am grateful for the peace of ‘nothing missing, nothing broken,’ that passes understanding, and I can’t wait to see what happens next!
