I had lunch last week with a friend from high school. He’s had a rough year. After he related his grim saga, I gave him a five-minute synopsis of my life. Hearing of my difficulties he asked, haltingly, “Do you ever, ummm… just want to give up?”
I nodded. “Of course!” I replied, “Who doesn’t? I have my moments. Everyone does. Life is hard, and we don’t want it to be as hard as it is. It seems impossible to get through what we’re asked to suffer.”
“But… But what do you do then?” he asked.
“Me? Oh, I cry and shake my fist at God, and remind Him in no uncertain terms of all His promises. I yell and howl and get angry and tell him that I sure can’t see the point of this mess, and is He sure He knows what He’s doing? I’m very Psalmist-like about it: I figure it’s okay to get mad at God, because He’s big enough to take it.
Then eventually I calm down and tell Him again that I’ll love Him through all circumstances, even if I don’t like a lot of what I have to do, even if I have to live with an outcome I hate. And then, when all that’s done and I’ve laid out all my feelings before Him, my heart is in a better place.”
My friend nodded slowly, processing what I’d said. I added, “I have this theory that sometimes our emotions are so noisy that they get in the way of hearing what God is telling us. Sometimes we literally need to cry to the Lord before we can sense His peace.”
For me, at least, it’s true. How about you?
