My cries broke the silence.
There was a plea in my heart for another way… another way that somehow the plans I had for my life could succeed, despite the Godly hesitancy and the reasons why… or in this case, why not.
A nearly empty room, my legs tucked under me in an armchair… back at home in my parents’ house, the familiar being twisted around the unfamiliarness of that night. I buried my face in a blanket, and cried out loud:
God, what happens when I don’t understand You? When I want to encourage and nothing I can do gets through? What happens when the desires of my heart are not what You have for me, even though maybe they could be good for a season? What happens when my job feels like a train wreck, my education is a joke and what hope I have for relationships sometimes doesn’t match up with Yours? What happens now, God? You said you would give me the desires of my heart. And tonight, I am not getting what my heart wants and longs for. I know Your plan is bigger than mine, and that you can see the horizon better than I can… but why would you bless me with something for a season only to take it away? Why struggles and why pain? Why can’t I make sense of any of this, even though I’m seeking You?
I think more than anything, God wants our honesty; our open prayers and questioning, our fears and our failures and our beauty. I spent the week with an amazing friend, who mentioned this morning that without some of his struggles and ongoing issues in life, that he would turn to God less. That in a crazy way, he can be thankful for those things he wrestles with; that if we never struggled, and if life were perfect on its own, we would have a more incomplete picture of who God is. I think that is beautiful and true.
In some ways I am learning to be thankful for the things that turn me back to face the right direction, and the One who is Direction. To have joy in the midst of whatever is going on inside of me, whether or not my heart is in pain. I am thankful for all I am learning, and all that He is teaching me through others; thankful for joy and hope, even when they seem fleeting and out of my grasp. I am thankful for weeks like this one, when I am drained emotionally and physically, and when my heart is tired. When I am drawn to look at the goodness of my God; at the way He waits to hold me in the midst of nights like these.
I am thankful that I am incomplete; that the beauty of me and my life is that we are both being pieced together more each day.
There is tomorrow. If nothing else, I can rest in that.
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1 comment:
I feel so Godless Dayna when I read your words. I cannot say that God has played any conscious role in my adult life. maybe growing up in a catholic school took the spirit away. I do c onsider myself mystical and would be afraid to say that God does not exist. But I do find it highly improbable that he has time or need for our prayers. I would not mind to be proven wrong. But He would not let that happen. I did write once about Him, at the end of a travel article I published in a magazine. But it was more like a quote I heard once. If i remeber well I wrote:
"I once met a traveller on a train. I was very young and asked him why he travelled. He said: When you travel you put your life in the hands of God. You are no longer protected by life's routine. You are at His mercy and now have a chance to change your future."
ps. So you can read Spanish!?
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