Here is another transcript of one of my Sunday Thoughts shows on Wide Awakes Radio. This one aired on the 23rd of July, I think. Of course, the actual show doesn't follow this transcript exactly, but it's pretty close.
So, I hope you read and enjoy it!
Thank you so much for tuning in again today to "Sunday Thoughts with Kat." Today, we're going to talk a little bit about being tired and frustrated with all the busyness of our lives, and one of the main things God wants us to do about it.
I'd like to tell you about a friend of mine named Jody. I met her through my association with the Ladies of the Cotillion, but I've never met her in person. Just recently, she started a new blog with her friend Wendy, called GodDivas. Her first post, "the Thought" has this wonderful paragraph:
"First of all, you don't have a random 'higher power'. You have a father, a comforter, a redeemer, a merciful God and a friend to help you. Jesus is not just an abstract thought. Second of all, even if you pray to Jesus 25 hours a day or fast 8 days a week, you're not guaranteed anything but His love and mercy. So yes, everything will eventually be great in heaven. But that certainly doesn't mean there won't be a storm or two or an entire Florida Hurricane season in your path or in your daughter's path. Just know you've got God to hold on to and for Him to hold you when things get rough. And that's where your faith needs to be. Not in your 'instincts' or abilities as a parent but in Him and knowing that whatever you go through and whatever (your daughter) goes through, He will still be there."
Fantastic - Jody gets it! In all the turmoil and upheaval of our lives, we have a God Who is personal and caring, Who wants us to cast all our cares upon Him, because He cares for us.
So, before we begin, let us open in prayer:
Dear Father, we come before You today in worship and thanksgiving for Your love and mercy and grace. We know that You are a very present help in trouble, that You are our Rock and our Fortress amid life's turmoil. You are El-Shalom, the Lord our peace - and You bring the peace which passes all understanding. Help us, Lord, to abide in You and take Your strength for our lives. Help us, I pray, be still before You and listen for Your still, small voice.Father, I pray yet again, that You open ears only to the Words that are true and right and according to Your Word. Remove my mistakes from the listeners' ears, so that You may be glorified in Spirit and in truth. And I pray with all humility that
... the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart Be acceptable in Your sight O Lord, my Strength and my Redeemer. Amen!
I've been tired lately. Haven't you? The summer is halfway through, and it's been a whirlwind of activity for me - starting up Wide Awakes Radio, taking over the management of the Virginia Blog Carnival, going on RV trips, installing a pool and a workshop, taking the Munchkin to camp, visiting my parents, a death in the family... It's really been non-stop.
How has your summer been? Have you been fixated on the news out of Iraq and Israel? Have you been visiting family with your children? Have you been stuck on the road and away from your loved ones? Are you going back and forth to the hospital with a chronic illness? Have you been searching for a job? I'm sure that your summer, so far, hasn't been any less busy than mine. I bet you feel tired, too.
So much of our lives seem to be spent racing from one thing to another, taken up by important trivialities. Yes, that was an oxymoron, but I'll get back to it in a bit.
One of the most afflicted men in the Bible was a man named Job; he has a whole book named after him. God permitted him to be sorely tried by Satan, and after Satan was finished with him, all Job really had left was God, and life. His wife told him to curse God and die, his children were dead, his properties ransacked, his cattle were stolen, and he lost all of his wealth. Even his friends who supposedly came to comfort him brought nothing but grief: Their attidute was - "Surely, Job, you must have don'e something wrong, for God to punish you so terribly!" I can just hear their self-righteous voices!
Yet the Bible itself makes clear that Job was an upright and righteous man. The purpose of all these afflictions was not to punish him, but to test and show everyone his faith.
Now. Compare your life, as I've been comparing mine, to Job's. Most likely, if Job is on the pain and sorrow scale at a ten, I suspect that we're maybe a three in our daily lives at worst. Certainly, the death of a spouse or child, or a painful chronic illness, or bankruptcy, or any number of things, will send us far over to Job's side of the scale, but how many people do you know whose spouse left them, whose children were all killed, who lost all his wealth and possessions, and whose friends turned on him - all in an extremely short span of time.
How many of us really experience the sorrows and tragedies that Job had in such intensity in his life, especially in such a short period of time? Of course Job - even patient, longsuffering Job - finally breaks down and says, "God, I'm tired! I've had enough! I don't understand!" Let's take a look at Job 3 - verses 2-6, where Job cries out:
"May the day perish on which I was born,/And the night in which it was said,/ 'A male child is conceived.'
May that day be darkness;/May God above not seek it,/Nor the light shine upon it.
May darkness and the shadow of death claim it;/May a cloud settle on it;/ May the blackness of the day terrify it.
As for that night, may darkness seize it;/ May it not rejoice among the days of the year, /May it not come into the number of the months.
Job is cursing the day he was born - he curses the very day he was conceived! Gee, that sure sounds pretty confident and optimistinc and upbeat to me, doesn't it? I don't think so!
He continues in verse eleven:
"Why did I not die at birth?/ Why did I not perish when I came from the womb?
Why did the knees receive me?/ Or why the breasts, that I should nurse?
For now I would have lain still and been quiet,/ I would have been asleep; / Then I would have been at rest
Ooo, there's that word: rest...
And he concludes at the end of chapter 3,
For the thing I greatly feared has come upon me,/ And what I dreaded has happened to me.
I am not at ease, nor am I quiet;/ I have no rest, for trouble comes.
REST. Amid all of this turmoil, rest is what Job is looking for. Job is exhausted. He has no rest in all his afflictions, he is confused with all the tagedies that have befallen him, and he's about to discover that with friends like the ones he has, he really doesn't need enemies. He's exhausted, he's in pain, he's frustrated, and he doesn't understand all that's happening.
All right. Well, we have our lives, too - they're hectic and they're busy, they're filled up with racing to and fro, and we have our own trials and tribulations in our lives. And we get tired. We're exhausted, too.
Job is tired and he doesn't really know where to turn at first. He certainly can't rely on his friends He goes through about 30 chapters of discussion with them and their cold, self-righteous attempts at comfort. And he sends, finally, a heartfelt petition to God - "God, tell me what's going on! Let me stand before You, judge me, show me my sin!" And in chapter 38 of the book of Job, God finally shows up to solve Job's problem.
"Oh, thank goodness!" you say - God's going to explain it all, He's going to pat Job on the head and comfort him, and then God's going to fry those awful people who were so mean to Job! He's going to put everything back the way it was, and Job can get on with his normal life. Wow, if God can do that, He can certainly fix my life!
Well, yes. God can fix your life. He wants very much to fix your life. And God certainly fixed Job's life... but he didn't do it the way Job expected, and He's not going to do it in the way YOU'RE expecting, either.
All right folks, here's the situation: Job's in misery. He's frustrated, he's confused, he's angry, and he really doesn't understand what's going on. His friends are insisting that he's sinned somewhere along the line and that God's angry with him, and he's countering by saying "No! I've led an upright life - I've sacrificed when I've done wrong, I've loved God, I've done my best to obey and follow Him."
That's very much like our lives can be. Perhaps not quite to this degree, but I for one, am very familiar with all these emotions and all this confusion. Aren't you? So many times, I simply am so confused and so exhausted, that I don't know where to turn.
And here's what I think we all want to happen: [cue the dramatic music]
It's God to the rescue time! Look, up in the sky - there He is! Can't you see His cape flying? Look at the way He smites those terrible friends who were so mean! My goodness, look at all the warm snugglies He's giving Job! Oh, boy, WOW, he's picking Job up and flying away to the clouds where Job gets to lie down and rest and.... [music comes to a screeching halt]
Nope. God doesn't do it that way. When He shows up, here's what He says:
"Who is this who darkens counsel/ By words without knowledge?
Now prepare yourself like a man;/ I will question you, and you shall answer Me.
" Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?/Tell Me, if you have understanding.
Who determined its measurements?/ Surely you know!/ Or who stretched the line upon it?
To what were its foundations fastened?/ Or who laid its cornerstone,
When the morning stars sang together, / And all the sons of God shouted for joy?
And then:
"Have you entered the springs of the sea?/ Or have you walked in search of the depths?
Have the gates of death been revealed to you?/ Or have you seen the doors of the shadow of death?
Have you comprehended the breadth of the earth?/ Tell Me, if you know all this.
" Where is the way to the dwelling of light?/ And darkness, where is its place,
That you may take it to its territory,/ That you may know the paths to its home?
Do you know it, because you were born then,/ Or because the number of your days is great?
"Have you entered the treasury of snow, / Or have you seen the treasury of hail,
Which I have reserved for the time of trouble,/ For the day of battle and war?
By what way is light diffused,/ Or the east wind scattered over the earth?
"Who has divided a channel for the overflowing water,/ Or a path for the thunderbolt,
To cause it to rain on a land where there is no one,/ A wilderness in which there is no man;
To satisfy the desolate waste,/ And cause to spring forth the growth of tender grass?
I strongly suggest that you read it all; God starts His questioning in chapter 38, and He pretty much doesn't let up on Job until the end of chapter 41. He reminds Job of His power and His majesty. He reminds Job that HE is God, and Job is not.
Um, God? Wait, aren't You going to fix everything? Aren't You going to wave Your hand and put everything right? Aren't You going to rescue us and take care of everything?!!
Well. Yes, He will. But not necessarily here. And He's not necessarily going to fix everything according to OUR plans. God is going to put things right in the way that our Holy, all-powerful, all-knowing God knows is according to HIS plan. And, He's not going to do that until we remember just exactly Who He is. He spends about four chapters reminding Job that Job is human and NOT GOD. Speaking for myself - I've got four chapters written down right here: I don't need them re-enacted in my own life so that I learn the lesson.
I think, when we get tired and frazzled and worn out, that we even more likely to forget to focus on just Who God really is. We like to put Him an a safe box and take Him out once in a while to play, but other than that it's "Oh, that's nice God, thanks so much and would You do this for me please but I haven't really got time to talk to You now, much less listen, hey I'll get back to You just let me finish with this thankssomuch..."
And you know what? That pisses God off. He is your Lord and Creator. He is your Sovereign and Savior. He is the Almighty, the One True God, the Lord of Hosts. Actually, He's not "pissed." That's really a trivial word. He is wrathful. He is irate. He is furious. If you look at the first chapter of Romans, which says in part:
For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man--and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things. Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. [emph. mine]
God... should come first in our lives, because everything we are and everything we have comes from Him... and because He loves us so infinitely much. After all, the proof of His love is on that bloodstained Cross, that empty grave, and His Son interceeding and praying for us up in Heaven. But we all have the bad habit of ignoring Him, of not putting Him first, of forgetting just how holy, powerful, just... and loving He is.
So, let's go back to that oxymoron: "important trivialities." Yes, it's important that you pay the bills. Certainly, your job is important and your children are important. Of course, your health and your home are important. Absolutely, all that - and more - is important.
But what - or rather, Who - is most important? God is the One Who sustains you, who lifts you up. God showers us with blessings with each new day. God guides you, loves you, nurtures and disciplines you. Let us remember to focus first on the "Important Essential," to rest in Him, to listen to Him, to obey Him. He is your Father, your Creator, your Savior, and your Friend.
BUT! He must be the First thing in your life. then all the "important trivialities" will fall into the right place at the right time, and in the right way. It will be according to His timing, which is always perfect: never too fast or too slow - exactly right. If you put the "IMPORTANT ESSENTIAL" first in your life, His peace will rule your life. He will be your Anchor in the storm, and the Fortress which never fails.
Let's close with Psalm 23, and remember to follow our Good Shepherd, to let Him lead us and guide our lives:
The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.
He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.
Amen!
Thank you for joining me again this week. As always, I invite your questions and comments e-mailed to cathousechat -at- gmail(that's G M A I L) -dot- com
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