Day 3043 of the 7 day Bible verse challenge.

Isaiah 48:10 NIV

This road through life will unfold exactly as it's supposed to go, as God's ordained it to go, but how it goes is entirely up to us.

Yes, the fact that that entirely confusing opening gambit in today's message is likely entirely confusing is because it points to our inability to see just how often we allow our preferences to dictate our understanding of life as a whole. So much of what we know of life in this place is made of what we want, and eventually, what we want becomes the only place where happiness if found. And if getting what we want is the only road that leads to happiness, then we'll find little of it during our time.

Because while this road only goes one way, the little choices we make along that way determine our entire outlook upon this ride.

It's no secret or shock to say that all of us would like an easier road home. Even if you're among those who believe this world to be your home, you'd still agree that you'd like it as comfortable and pleasant as possible. Who wouldn't? Who doesn't appreciate the lazy days over those laden with hardship and hard work? Who doesn't much prefer the days of carefree freedom as opposed to those of endless responsibility and efforts proving insufficient?

All of us would clearly prefer a ride through life as free from difficulty as possible. But the problem with that is that just because we'd like life to go a certain way doesn't mean that God's just going to crumple up His will and toss it in the garbage so He can rewrite and reroute our lives in such a way that they bring us what we want instead of what He wants for us, from us.

Our penchant for selfishness is sadly one of those things blinding us in ways we cannot see. Get it? Blind, cannot see? Anyway. We live in this world so engrossed in this ideology that has folks convinced that they can write their own story, live what they find to be a perfect life, somehow avoid all struggle and strife and simply drift off into a furthering of the peace they managed to find here once here's gone.

But that's not how this works. Not even fairy tales are able to pass off that much nonsense and still seem plausible. No, this expectation of somehow finding a life free from hardship is a contemplation only made possible through the foolish frivolity of a human race racing to find that which cannot be found as it simply only exists in minds so clouded by entitlement that they can no longer see reality.

And losing our ability to see reality, to understand our place in this story, to appreciate that we're not the ones in control is causing us to foster a deep hatred of the One who is in control. Simply because He's not guiding this ship in the direction we want to go. No, in the hardened hearts and mangled minds of many He's just this great big meanie head that talks about love while dragging His children through the mud and mundanity, only leaving us to assume that He's not as kind as many try to make Him seem.

But what if the problem isn't that He's not as kind as many make Him seem but that we're unable to see what He's doing through the hardships we try to wish away?

I'll be the first to admit that there have been plenty of times where I've been quite angry with God for having to deal with something I felt unnecessary, uncomfortable, unbecoming of all my plans for a path of the most perfect peace possible. Car wrecks, cars stolen, injuries, illness, loss of jobs, dreams going up in smoke, plans unraveling in such rapidity that frustration ended up being all that was there to be found. I've shared several times about all the friendships I've lost and how I've battled to understand why it happened or what I did wrong.

I even talked recently about the most recent wrestling I've had with Him over this giant still taunting me in a battle that I've been losing for decades.

Why does it all have to be so hard? Why all the challenges and pains and losses in this life? Why does it seem that this road brings us only hardship and hassle when all we want is a moment's rest from the fight?

Because if it were up to us, we'd pick the path that taught us nothing.

We'd choose the options that required as little of us as possible. We would fast-forward through the rainy days and slow down those filled with fun in the sun. We would if we could steal the pen from His hand, we'd erase every trial, every difficulty, every pain, every loss. Yes, we'd write a most perfect story. But it would only be perfect because it didn't ask anything of us. It would be perfect because it would be easy, simple, manageable, understandable.

It would be perfect because we could handle it without ever once needing help, advice, guidance, wisdom, correction, refinement, forgiveness, mercy, healing. It would be perfect because we’d be in His seat.

And we'd miss Him because of it.

That's why it's hard. That's why it's long. That's why this life is filled with days that suck and people who suck and trials that suck and pains that suck and memories we wish we could erase and scars that never go away and nightmares that never stop coming and doubts that we can't understand and fears that won't leave us alone and these fragile hearts that break every single day for something we see or hear that shatters us inside even though we thought we were already broken beyond repair.

That's why this road is long. Because we need all this time and all the trials to slowly help us learn that we can't do it alone.

Contrary to what many seem to believe, our God isn't the Burger King manager some try to make Him out to be. Though He does do quite a bit of work with flames, something all of us would rather wish we couldn’t admit. We don’t get it our way. No, He’s not worried about us having it our way. Because He knows that our way is the way that only leads us deeper into ourselves instead of closer to Him as we leave ourselves behind.

The truth is, whether we want to admit it or not, what we want is only wanted because it's easy and safe and comfortable and profitable and popular and normal and quick. Unlike those three way back when, none of us would choose the furnace. Unlike David, we'd run away. Unlike Noah, we ain't building no boat cause it's not raining and we're in the middle of the desert. Unlike Abraham, we're not offering up anything, much less this child we've longed for forever. Unlike Joseph, we’d still be mad about somebody ripping up our fancy coat to offer to help them.

And God knows that. And because He knows that, He works our lives in a way that forces us to do what we'd never choose. He leads us to situations that demand our faith grows. He points us to problems that require us to learn humility. He tosses to the lions so that we can stand there watching their mouths remain closed. He calls us to do things that make no sense, not to make us look stupid, but to show us that we have no idea what's going on and need a relationship with the only One who does.

Friends, we're not building that relationship along an easy road free from difficulty. Our faith is forged in the flames as He burns away all the lies we've long believed so that His truth can finally take root and grow without being choked by all the nonsense we'd happily believe as we always have.

We don't need an easy life. Which is a good thing, because we're not getting one. No, we're getting a life that will ask more of us than we have to give. That's right, toss aside that nonsense about God not giving us more than we can handle. He most certainly does. But He does so because He knows that it's only when He's finally all we have left that we can finally see He's all we've ever needed.

So it’s the furnace of affliction for us.

This all kind of crashed down upon me yesterday as I sat listening to my family having an impromptu intervention regarding a problem I'd already realized was swelling under the surface. For some time now, happiness has been most elusive. I've found I spend most days angry, aggravated, upset, confused, sad, frustrated and increasingly annoyed. Happiness has fallen through the cracks and been left behind somewhere.

And as I sat thinking about all they said, I remembered this lesson I've been learning again and again in my life for as long as I can remember: Change your mind, change your life. It's not what we face down here that matters. We can't determine that part. But what we can control is how we react, how it hits, how deep we let the blows sink into us. We can't change the path ahead, but we can refuse our challenges the satisfaction of dragging us down.

Don't know about you, but that whole idea of 'pure joy' found over in James 1:2 seems as much an impossible ideal as those happily ever after's we watched and read growing up. But perhaps it only seems that way because we've become so used to making the other choice. We've grown accustomed to letting life dictate our joy rather than placing that joy in God and therefore realizing that it's not what we go through but that He goes with us.

I look around at the world and what it's becoming and I want so deeply for people to understand it doesn't have to go this direction. All the anger and hatred and hurting of one another, it simply shouldn't be that way. And I think most of us would like it different. We'd like the world to be a bit kinder, a bit safer, a more peaceable place. We can't force that. And it's becoming clear that it's just not going to get any better.

Maybe all we can do is learn to appreciate the heat. Maybe all we can do is try to focus more on finding the good in everything, yes, in everything. Maybe all we can do is let go of the plans we had and the changes we'd like to make and the hopes that the world around us refuses to work toward. Maybe all we can do is step back and let God be God while we concern ourselves with focusing on Him rather than how we'd like things to be different.

Fact of the matter is that we need this world to be breaking all around us. We need the reminders of who not to be and what's not okay to do. We need life to beat us up so that we can find healing. We need to be kicked out of society so that we can find shelter in His arms. We need to lose things, even things we've always wanted, not because they wouldn't have maybe made us happy, but because if our happiness were tied to this world, then it would never be rooted in Christ. Yes, if our lives here could somehow be our ideal of perfect and peaceful and prosperous, then they’d only be lives we were hesitant to leave behind.

We need the hard road home, because it makes the destination even brighter as our hope for this life fades. We need to let Him refine us through a life that pushes us right on past our breaking point. We need affliction so that we can better understand the deepness of His salvation. Because if we never need saving, we’ll never seek the One who saves. I think that's the secret we'd so clearly like to skip. That we need to be broken because it's through the cracks that His light can shine in.

As much as we'd like to change a great many things about this life and how it goes and all it holds, we need whatever pushes us closer to Him. And if it takes pain or sadness or being hated to get us there, so be it. If it means heat and torment and trial to teach us to surrender, appreciate it. If it means Him burning away all that keeps us convinced that we can somehow find a worthy reward down here, maybe we’ll finally learn to see Heaven as such rare promise that we rage through every wall that stands in our way.

We may not enjoy the trials we face or the affliction they bring, but if we could just see them from a perspective other than ours clearly built on entitlement, we just might see them a bit more like God saw them when He ordained them. Not as unfortunate circumstances meant to drain joy from our lives, but as the means to help us see Him as we’re left with nothing in those moments of fear and doubt but to trust that He’s got us.

Life’s trials should inspire us to close our eyes and stop trying to see our way through and instead open our hearts whereby we must finally trust He who we cannot see. Which just so happens to be exactly what He knows we need for faith to flourish.

Through the furnace.

#LeaveNoSoulUntold