Corners and Curves
There is a lot of hurting right now! It’s heartbreaking. I’m hearing the stories. I’m getting the prayer requests. I’m literally holding friends while their tears fall. The big stuff. The stuff that has families and friends torn apart, the financial hardships, the medical uncertainties, the diagnoses with little hope—the hard-hitting parts of life that create the endless churning in the pit of stomachs; with restless nights and painful days.
I think in one way, or another, we’ve all been there. Sometimes we’re in the middle of the storm ourselves, or sometimes we’re standing outside of it holding on to the ones who are. Direct, or indirect, the vortex of life’s ever swirling storms touches each and every one of us. And those storms cause us to wonder why.
Why the pain? Why the hurt? Why the turmoil? Why would you, God?
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve asked these questions. I’ve asked them for me—I’ve asked them for family—I’ve asked them for friends.
I ask because I want answers.
I need answers.
I need to know there is a reason for such indescribable pain and heartache.
Why? Why Lord? What on earth would be the reason for these problems?
And He answers in the question—“you focus on the earthly, I focus on the eternal.”
That’s a big “why” to describe. It’s one that comes with the very nature of the question—unanswerable. Life’s problems are that way. There are simply no answers to the very nature of the problems.
God showed up on a morning walk and helped me understand...
I live in a rural area where there are but a few traffic signals and even fewer sidewalks. In order for me to do a full loop, I have to cross over a main roadway. At an open intersection, I am faced with playing the waiting game, and the listening game, and the running-across-quickly game with very little time to spare. The problem--there is a blind curve which limits my view to on-coming traffic.
As of now…so far, so good.
When I reverse my route to go home, I face the same exact intersection, but at a different vantage point. I can clearly see both ways for long distances. The curve is no longer blind for me. There is no wondering, no extra listening, and no playing frogger to get across. I simply look, then go.
It’s all very cliché isn’t it?
I’m sure you’re one step ahead of me right now.
I’m sure you know where this is going.
God sees around the corners that we cannot. He sees through the curves that we cannot see. His view is from the ultimate vantage point—not ours.
This example may sound trite to some, but God's words aren't. He doesn’t speak by soundbites or short-lived clichés—His words are as real as they get:
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding” Proverbs 3:5
“‘For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,’ declare the Lord.” Isaiah 55:8
But that’s what God does, doesn’t he? He reaches down to us in our whys and our tears and says, beloved, I know you want answers to some devastating things, but for now I am giving you words, even if you think they're clichés. I’m giving you the little bits of truths through happenstances, like morning walks around corners, or through words that others write. It is in those, that I want you to trust me. To see that I am working things together but that you need to trust. It won’t make sense to you, but it does to me. It won’t seem right to you, but it does to me. It seems all is lost to you, but not to me.
In all that…trust me.
My friends, the hardness of life is unfair. It is everything we don’t want. And God knows this. It wasn’t His plan, but here we are. And it is at those times when we are standing at the corners and curves of our lives where He simply says, “trust Me.”
If you are in a storm right now, or holding hands with someone who is, may I encourage you to ask all the whys you want to a God who wants to hear from you. The answer you are looking for may simply be the One to whom you are asking. He has the full picture—He needs you to trust.
Lord, Jesus, hear us! The burdens and hurts are heavy right now. We want to trust in you, but we fall short and lean on only what we see. Fix us, Lord! Give us strength. Strength through the storm and strength in your Truths! Fix our eyes on you.
(If at any time you, or someone you know, needs prayer, please find the contact form in the website and send a request. Those contacts are confidential and come straight to me. I'd love to pray with you.)