Faithscape

Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted (Matthew, 5:4 NIV)

“You’re blessed when you feel you’ve lost what is most dear to you. Only then can you be embraced by the One most dear to you” (The Message).

What a paradoxical statement!  How can that be? Let’s think this through? What’s dear to us can vary over time and/or we can have many things that are dear to us:

            A pet

            Our jobs (careers)

            Parents

            Our spouse

            Our church

            Our brothers, our sisters, our homes, you name it.

For me it was the loss of a job and to certain extent a career that I spent 30 years building.

But you know I am surviving. I am embracing the process and learning to live by faith one day at a time.

I trust God to take care of me; yes, for the essentials (shelter, food, clothing, etc) and for the existential (the meaning of life, why me God, etc).

Yes it is scary, but I embrace this uncertainty, this mystery because the Lord has taught me that He is my shepherd and I shall not want (Psalm 23:1) and that He will carry my burdens daily (Psalm 68:19). 

So in this time of loss, uncertainty and yes, questioning, my faith in my God is unwavering.

I know that God hears my sighs, sees my tears and even when I cannot pray intercedes for me with groans that words cannot express (Roman 8:26); and because of this, I know without doubt that I am in God’s care and in His will. Amen.

“I am the Lord your God, who brought you up out of Egypt. Open wide your mouth and I will fill it.”  Psalm 81:10

Should I be delighted that God has chosen me for this journey? What journey you say? I don’t know, but I am on this journey with God.

This journey is about discerning God’s will for my life. This journey is about waiting and trusting God to meet my needs; to be obedient to that “special prompting.” This journey is about me not being in charge; to not be my stubborn self, but to trust the God I cannot see, the one who promised me, many years ago, to be with me always to the end of my time. It is this God, the one in our “Holy Bible,” who has set so many free.

So I am on this spiritual journey that requires me to be prayerful, open, alert and yes, faithful to the spirit’s prompting. A journey that requires me to be attuned to every facet of my life and “to pay attention on many levels: to consult scripture, to seek the advice of trusted advisors, to heed the sensus fidelium (the collective sense of the faithful), to read widely and deeply the best ancient and contemporary thinking, to pray, to attend to the prick of conscience and to the yearnings and dreamings of (my) heart, to watch, to wait, to listen.”*

God, I like taking trips, but the stubborn, take charge person that I am is not ready to go on this particular journey. But you, oh Lord, in your wisdom has chosen this journey for me. I worry about my health, the loss of friendship and oh yes, security. Waiting, being patient and trusting that my needs will be provided by someone other than me is really scary. But yet, I take this journey. A journey that my “angel heart” has prepared me for–because my provisions, my comfort, my salvation is in your hand for “you are my shepherd and I have everything I need” (Psalm 23:1).

I pray that as I travel on this journey that I am faithful and can speak these same words as assuredly as Paul when he said: “…for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength” (Philippians 4:11-13).

Should I be delighted?

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 * Wendy M Wright, in Rueben Job’s book: A Guide to Spiritual Discernment, 1996, p.86.

Related Articles

• There Are No Ordinary Journeys (itakeoffthemask.com)
• Delight in God’s Will (pjsprayerline.blogspot.com)

Long enough, God—you’ve ignored me long enough. I’ve looked at the back of your head long enough. Long enough I’ve carried this ton of trouble, lived with a stomach full of pain. Long enough my arrogant enemies have looked down their noses at me. Take a good look at me, God, my God; I want to look life in the eye, so no enemy can get the best of me or laugh when I fall on my face. Psalm 13:1-4 (The Message).

You want a more traditional version of this Psalm—check your King James Version, or New International Version or better yet, maybe the New Living Translation or the New American Standard Bible. Guess what, they all say the same thing. Can it get any worse, let’s see? I will use a more traditional scripture interpretation.

My God, my God! Why have you forsaken me? Why do you remain so distant? Why do you ignore my cries for help? Every day I call to you, my God, but you do not answer. Every night you hear my voice, but I find no relief. Psalm 22:1-2 (New Living Translation).

Have you ever doubted God’s love for you? According to Richard H. Schmidt (2005), “most of us feel forsaken by God from time to time. We feel either that God is real but has turned his back on us, or that the God we had thought was real is actually an illusion.” (p. 44). Those words in Psalm 22 were quoted by Jesus on the cross. He too felt abandoned by the One he had trusted; the one that God loves; God’s only begotten son.

Can I ask you again? Have you ever doubted God’s love for you? If so, revisit your life to see how faithful God has been to you, how he has blessed you, how he had protected you and how even today God continues to communicate with you. Are you surprised that he met your needs, not your wants, but your needs? Are you surprised to feel His presence among your friends and within your heart? Are your life renewed with optimism and hope.

Yes, we will feel abandoned again, but remember Jesus was one of us and he was there in that forsaken place. But according to Schmidt (2005), Jesus is also God and therefore, God knows what it is like to feel abandoned. Yes, this knowledge takes faith, but I pray that through your study of holy readings, prayers, your circumstances and fellowship with your faith community that God’s love for you will be revealed. So I say trust God and I pray today that we never forget God’s loves for us.

explorefaith.org – How to Recognize the Holy Spirit in Your Life.