Day 4065 of the 7 day Bible verse challenge.

Romans 5:3 NIV

The weathering

It’s something of a matter so easily argued that it’s nothing we need argue over at all. Rather we all know and that because we entirely understand what is the gravity of this life as is poured in this ever-consistent rain which flows in pain, in problem, in punishment and the profit by which we seek the pleasure in which we find this ability, albeit limited in both scope and time, that allows for something of a respite from life.

And indeed, all of us have already seen what we likely feel our fair share of the bitter air of a life lived atop what is a battlefield.

Whether we see it that way or not.

Which is itself becoming something of an irony to be honest. For the honest truth is that there are so many here who live so vastly lost inside this endless assumption as to the general purpose of life itself being something we’re all meant to measure in the matters we think more majestic than others. It’s this theory theorized as our “best life”, an idea we each cherish so because it allows us to step boldly unto the unknown with this feeble arrogance in tow that gives us this ego that loves to assume we both know what would be best and that somehow we’ve the ability, the authority to see it materialized.

An offshoot of the very same problem being that so much of our “best lives” are being lived for what are nothing more than material things. Likely because we can see both them and those who too want them as they likewise see with their eyes all the glitter and gain in what is a life in which we’re trained to see things as necessity simply for the ordinary sake of their adding some sense or semblance of ease, comfort or other such personal gain unto our lives.

Thereby also always assuaging some of the suffering which always seems ever-present.

Indeed, this is why I believe that we’re all consumed with consuming this culture of constant consumption designed inside the general approaches necessary for such ideologies as capitalism and the consumerism which drives it.

It’s all to distract us from the fact that our best is always to be but a distant idea held inside this impossible task of finding both a life that’s perfect and too ourselves perfect at living it so as to keep it that way. Both of which are undeniably things that are supremely outside the logic and limit of possibility simply because we live in a fallen world as each of us a fallen man. For indeed, all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. And whilst all are freely forgiven, the fact is that forgiveness is neither free nor thus easy.

Rather all forgiveness asks that grace be given in place of where recompense could be sought and retaliation perhaps arguably justified.

In simpler terms, we all deserve very little that’s even good in light of how little and how rarely we’ve ever been anything even remotely close to the idea. Rather if we were to ever be honest, which one day we will but alas most of us never knowing that day for quite some time still, we’d have to confess that even the worst we experience in this world is really nothing compared to what we truly deserve for our having long desired to basically usurp God’s existence in our lives.

We’ve not merely replaced Him with all these idols we’ve made out of basically everything but we’ve each even gone so far as to slide headlong into this assumption that we are Him. After all, again, is not our idea of our “best life” just that?

Our idea?

And indeed, we’ve had so very many of the same kinds of thing, our ideas, only to have seen them accomplish so very little, most of the little failing itself to last, that was anywhere close to anything that we’d in any way now even reconsider trying to find again.

Why?

Because often in life our best has fallen short of the better still we were then able to still imagine even having found it. Add onto that the glaringly obvious reality that someone else’s personal ideals are rapidly risking becoming something or indeed some things that are still somewhat considered taboo if not outright unthinkable, and well what we’ve arrived at is this world in which doing bad is basically akin to breathing all because we’ve all become quite convinced that we are God and thus endowed by ourselves with whatever unalienable right(s) we may so need to fit our desires which often require us doing things that demand we move the lines between right and wrong so as to never once risk feeling bad about whatever it is that makes us feel good.

And yet we still have it in us to deny God based upon both the widely-perceived slowness in regard to His promise and also because the road toward said promise is often harder, heavier, harrier and even at times decidedly more horrific than we feel we deserve to have to endure.

Rather our estimation of God has basically devolved to the point in which we see Him as a glorified ATM machine in which we punch in our requests and the little slot at the bottom spits out however much we asked for.

Indeed, we treat Him like a vending machine which runs not on money but on prayers we begrudgingly offer up in what are typically only those quite frequent moments of either panic or preference, worried either about having whatever we want Him to give us or rather, and perhaps even more often, His taking away some forthcoming struggle that we see coming down the pike and that straight for us.

Or at least some sort of misery we assume will be coming because, let’s be honest, life down here has rarely proven easy, simple, straightforward, comfortable, willing to cater to our wants, whims, wishes for wins or at the very least acknowledge our worries and why we feel we’re justified in always having them in our back pockets ready to even muddy the skies of the good days we allow ourselves to accidently realize we have far more often than we deserve.

No, we can’t risk that happening too much because we’ve become a people of both pride and pity, both only because they achieve for us either a higher view of ourselves than is likely realistic to have or, and again perhaps more commonly sought, this sense of sorrow shown our way from those who agree to feel as sorry for us as we’ve so often settled for ourselves.

Why?

Because life rarely goes exactly the way we want it to, and, rather than seeking for some reason as to the many discrepancies we come upon, we’ve instead chosen to embrace this mindset in which we whine about the weather rather than wondering what the rain’s meant to either grow or wash away.

No, we just think of the many parades we’ve planned that have instead been ruined.

Never once then coming upon the ability, the audacity to imagine that maybe rain is a good thing. Let alone that pain is a good thing. Much less that strain, struggle, strife is perhaps the best thing we could ever experience in life because, as Paul goes on in the imminent verses to point out, not only does suffering produce perseverance but it actually only forms what becomes the very humbling beginning of a pattern of growth on and in purpose as is proven in that perseverance then begets a betterment in regard to character, which itself tends toward a deepening of hope which itself “does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.”

Pretty much saying that God’s love is proven best inside the struggles we endure as they’re what achieve in us our growth in at first our awareness of and then from there our appreciation of what is the gift of the Holy Spirit which has been given us but not for what we’d perhaps like to use it for but rather to accomplish God’s will in us which, in order to coincide with the fact that His ways are higher than ours, is also higher than ours.

Yes, His plans for us include such growth in hope, in happiness, in holiness that we could, at least theoretically, reach this place in both time and mostly more in mind in which we finally find this alien willingness to consider there being a viable need for the many things that demand of us a simple endurance as is welcomed in our understanding that where we’re standing doesn’t always have to define where we’re going and too, as I mentioned the other day, that what we’re going through means nothing compared to where it all has us going to.

Hard part is that we can’t see that thanks to our having so become such people of preferences and opinions, both of which have all but finally become all we exist to worry about anymore.

But then again I guess that was bound to happen considering our almost violent tendency toward making life all about us.

Which aims back toward that whole “we think we’re gods” dilemma.

Which is pretty much the sole aim of humility’s very existence. It’s to help us think both of ourselves less and perhaps even less of ourselves than we do. Because, well, until we manage to lose this egotistical estimation as to what we feel we do or do not deserve in life, we’re probably just going to continue both struggling to find much good to be thankful for and much bad that we’re not willing to complain about.

All because we assume the good things in life as only those that we deserve whereas the bad then as everything we don’t.

Setting ourselves then up perpetually to be disappointed in both of the two main ways that such can happen: Our not getting everything we want and too our having to go through plenty of what we don’t.

The both combining to once again severely hinder any remaining hope of our growth in humility, thus in holiness, thus in hope. All because there’s really no hope we can ever manage to have that exists here because, well that which is seen is only temporary and so we’d thus be then only affixing an expiration date to our hopes, which seems stupid, and we also can’t grow in holiness unless and until we agree to do as holiness is meant to:

Separate things.

For to be holy is to be set apart. It’s to be removed from the places which hinder holiness. It’s a cleansing of sorts, a sorting of things into what are basically two simple categories: those which are beneficial and those more which are not. And yet this is where most of us have always gotten things entirely backwards and quite impressively mixed up. It’s that, again due our penchant for preference and opinion, both of which are based almost entirely upon personal feelings, we thus have learned to see benefit as something proven in comfort or profit or prestige or fame or something along those lines.

Yes, the only things which we see as being beneficial to our lives are only those which make us either look good or feel good.

Leaving then such things as pain and strain to be constantly seen as entirely unnecessary as they rarely accomplish either, especially up front where our focuses usually reside. A fact formed in what seems an odd realization as to the brevity of our time here, but one that we again somehow always manage to mix up into what eventually amounts to nothing more than a hurry to have our rewards as soon as possible so that we’re ensured that we can enjoy them for as long as possible.

Because forever takes too long to get here because God’s slow in keeping His promises because we think His promises are only about our having this grand life in which nothing ever goes wrong to the point in which we never even run out of gas and have to call in a favor.

No, we’re so selfishly deluded, diluted that we think God exists to keep us from even stubbing our toe on the nightstand.

Because He’s apparently not got much going on outside of making our lives miserable, am I right?

Well, no, no I’m not. None of us are. At least not so long as we remain so obtuse as to still confuse the fact that rain makes things grow and pain helps us learn and struggle inspires this fire inside of us that ignites in us this bold refusal to quit as we’re simply adamant to not let our circumstances dictate the outcome anymore.

Sadly this is a matter of increasing rarity as rarely do the tough get going when the going gets tough. Rather anymore we mostly just run back to our safe-spaces and have a good cry because life is just hard and nobody understands what we’re going through.

Because nobody could have ever possibly gone through something harder, longer, scarier, more painful than breaking up with a boyfriend we had for three days.

Yeah, nobody else has ever experienced something tough in a matter of three days.

Nobody at all!

Friends, if we ever really wanted to be awesome at something, I mean full on amazingly good, we’d do well to pick being ashamed of ourselves rather than impressed with ourselves. Because we are so quick to discount the very existence of anyone else whenever our lives aren’t going just right. Truly, our natural instinct has become to resort to focusing on ourselves. So much so that we again just get lost thinking about how we feel and how hard life is and why it’s all just so unfair.

Ever stop to think about how unfair it was that Christ was crucified for the foul words you say whenever you get frustrated that someone’s driving too slow while you’re in a hurry to get your 10th $7 coffee for the day?

Ever stop to wonder how petty you sound complaining about how rude your boss was to a friend who’s going through a messy divorce trying to keep the kids’ spirits up as their family falls apart? Every worry that you might sound a little silly talking about how your perfect plans for a dream vacation got all messed up because of a storm to someone who can’t afford to pay their bills and hasn’t had a day off in four years?

Ever stop to consider how God feels when you continue to overlook His countless blessings that He sends us fresh every morning because you’re just so busy feeling so unhappy that He didn’t give you what you wanted instead?

It’s all literally nothing new. I’m reminded of the Israelites whining because the manna He gave them to sustain them wasn’t fun anymore and they wanted some meat again. Or how they kept complaining about how miserable they were in their freedom and wished they could just go back to their lives of enslavement in Egypt because at least they had food to eat and water to drink. Or how they even chose to hear only the tough parts of the spies reports of this Promised Land that was filled with good things yes but plenty of struggle too.

Indeed, it’s almost as if we’re just adamant to find the worst in everything.

But if only we could see that everything here is some sort of reflection or reminder or reason to refuse our tenacious tendency toward assuming we’re better off staying put. It’s all evidence of Heaven in one way or another, the good but a fraction of the perfection that awaits and every struggle only a reason to believe in that better being there. Every good day we get to have is proof that God is good. Every hard day we endure is proof that He has something more to help us see or encourage us to become.

It is all for our good!

We just can’t seem to manage to let ourselves see much good in any of it anymore.

But what if we could? What if we took even just a day, shoot, an hour and forced ourselves to not complain about anything? What if we could become so adamant upon being thankful, being happy, being bold enough to believe enough in God above that we learned to see the evidence of His working on us, in us, for us, through us even inside the struggles we have in life?

Yes, what if we dared to imagine that it wasn’t all about us?

Might we come away with an ability to see that our struggles are meant to help us grow so that we’re better able to help someone else who eventually goes through something we survived? Might we begin to realize that God keeping things away from us only saves us from what would prove more idols? Could we eventually learn to see that we can only grow whenever we’re forced to, and that comfort in no way helps?

Maybe we could even start to imagine Heaven as what is the opposite of a life of hardship, a heaviness that we’ve felt replaced by a hopefulness that only grew deeper because of the weight?

But then again, well, we’re not even willing to wait for anything anymore. Rather we again just want our best lives and we want them right now and any delay at all is only measured as a lack of mercy, a lack of kindness, a lack of compassion, a lack of love.

Yes, God must not love us because our lives are still hard.

Friends, what if our lives are hard in order to help us find the desire to leave them behind upon crosses we willingly took up with the express belief that they’d be left behind one day as we exchange them for crowns won in our persevering through the training, the straining, the daring to believe that He has a reason and that it doesn’t really even matter what it is or how it feels because we trust in where it leads?

Indeed, what if we could believe in our need of hardship, of emptiness, of loneliness? What if we could just come to see that God does give us more than we can handle, not to break us, no, but rather to help us learn to look toward He who just wants us to learn to trust in Him to handle everything we can’t?

Because the simple fact is that while relying on ourselves and believing for only our ideals may sound great and feel wonderful, it gets us nowhere other than wherever our weakness and doubt is willing to go. God has more for us, and yes, He’s willing to ask us through some true trials and torments along the way.

What if we could be brave enough to focus on the outcome as opposed to the fallout?

Because the reality is that if this life were only easy, well we’d all find in that plenty of reasons to stay here and want nothing else. But friends, that this life isn’t perfect is only proof that there’s something better out there somewhere.

The struggles He sends are meant to help us find it.

But the audacity to look, the willingness to believe and the courage to not care what we see in the way is something of a personal choice. I just have this feeling that if we could learn to look beyond the strife we could see that the reason for it is life.

And that as in eternal.

#LeaveNoSoulUntold