Romans 8:27-30
“Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God’s Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don’t know what to pray, it doesn’t matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our endless sighs, our aching groans. He knows us knows far better than we know ourselves, knows our pregnant condition, and keeps us present before God. That’s why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good.
God knew what He was doing from the very beginning. He decided from the outset to shape the lives of those who love Him along the same lines of life for His Son. The Son stands first in line of humanity He restored. We see the original and intended shape of our lives there in Him. After God made that original decision of what His children should look like, He followed it up by calling people by name. After He called them by name, He set them on a solid basis with Himself. And then, after getting them established, He stayed with them to the end, gloriously completing what He had begun.”
Have you ever felt like you have gone all out in a situation only to find yourself just holding the bag? Maybe you have helped out a family member get back on their feet only to find out that they had all the intent of just using you as their safety net to get what they wanted. Others may feel that they have fought for a cause with a good intent only to find that the cause was futile.
As I reflect upon the past 5 or 6 years of my life, I was telling my fiancé this morning how much I feel as if I have been holding the bag. As I was explaining this to her I was imagining in my head the bag. Here I am sitting with this brown paper lunch bag where the milk tipped over making a hole in the bottom of the bag wet and allowing all of the contents to fall out. It was like watching a cartoon looking at the camera with that indignant look of ‘what do I do now?’
So I ask you, have you looked at the bag with its emptiness of the contents? Maybe you think that what you are still holding is useless and just garbage at the end of the day. Others, in the same boat, may look at the bag wondering if there is a silver lining there somewhere (at least the milk didn’t fall on me soiling my clothing).
As I am talking about this and thinking about what I was saying I asked the question “How does God see the paper bag?”
Let me explain what my bag looks like and the content that was inside. Over the past five years I had things like a well paying job and business, a marriage I felt was good, four beautiful and amazing children, great friends and a good church. What happened next was beyond my imagination. Maybe you can say the milk of a failing economy was the thing creating the bottom to fall out or a marriage with a spouse who was looking for the exit sign. The truth is I just don’t know what made the bottom fall out. All I know is I lost it all at one time; husband, father and business owner, gone!
After a two year battle with my former wife she decided to take the only thing that meant anything to me, my children. After 4 judges she found one who granted her the wish she was looking for without justification.
As I was talking and reflecting, all I could hear was God telling me to give Him the damaged bag. Why, what can YOU do with it? Only to hear Him say, “Let me show you.” What I saw was the remnants changed from garbage to being folded up cut here and there and transformed into a paper chain of people; MY FAMILY!
In the After’s latest song “Broken Hallelujah” the band explains that sometimes we need to bring God those broken times. It is in those times we find ourselves bringing our broken hallelujahs.
As I reflected on the devastation over the past 5 years I heard God just say, “I am emptying your hands in order for you to lift them and be filled yet again.” Sometimes we may find ourselves weighed down with the groceries of life trying to take on more and more only to realize we were never made to carry so many things endlessly. Sometimes it requires us to empty our hands in order to take on more. Other times God allows our hands to be emptied in order to realize that we have been distracted from HIS plan for us.
So when the bottom falls out, don’t look at holding the bag as worthless or garbage.
Rather look at it as Paul says to Galatia.
“And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.”
Galatians 6:9
Maybe your bag looks like trash, maybe it has a silver lining or maybe it is just merely empty. The reality is don’t grow weary in doing good. Raise your empty hands to God and prepare for the harvest.
CAL
Wednesday, March 19, 2014
Labor of Love
Micah 4:11-12 “But for now, they’re ganged up against you, many godless people, saying, ‘Kick her when she is down! Violate her! We want to see Zion grovel in the dirt.’ These blasphemers have no idea what God is thinking and doing in this. They don’t know that this is the making of God’s people, that thy are wheat being threshed, gold being refined.”
Life can be so cruel and unjust. As I sit here to write, I open my computer to the picture of my smiling children. Just a day ago one of the worst tragedies involving my children happened to me.
Over the past almost five years my former wife accused me of such wickedness dragging me through court. As a result she asked a forth judge to remove all parental rights from me where I would never again see them or talk to them until they became adults. The worst was when I heard a judge grant her wish and further it with his mocking of my relationship with them.
Five years. It is my labor of love. It brings me to tears as both of my dreams were stolen from me. It was first my marriage and now my kids. The two things God gave and the two things the enemy stole from me.
As I sit looking at the pictures of my kids and listing to music, I ask God let them see You in me. When they see me may they see You.
Yet through this tragedy I ask the same thing in each day until that day of restoration happens. Two weeks ago, at church, a guest pastor came and spoke about us being an impact on the children around us. Maybe it is the children under our roof. Maybe it is the children who may not be ours, a step child, a neighbor kid, a niece or nephew.
So as I wait I remain resolved until that day of restoration. I stand taking the opportunity to bless my nephews, my nieces, their kids and yes even my soon to be step children. As I open up in love, but with caution I realize something. I find God’s love pouring over a broken man who has felt defeated as a father through these children. It is their words of encouragement, desire to stand by my side and just say “hey I love you” with their hug.
The most encouraging word that was given to was from my fiancée’s daughter. She said, “Everyone wants a little happiness, no one wants pain, but you can’t have a rainbow without a little rain” capped off with an I love you.”
What happens though when we feel we have been kicked when we are down? Do we give up on God or do we trust His better plan when nothing makes sense and the false accusations go flying? Are we willing to allow God refine us when we are in the waiting room of reconciliation?
Just before I went to court to get the wind knocked out of me I heard a song I had only heard once before which has been my prayer for the year. In JJ Weeks song “Let Them See You” they sing a prayer of how we need to see our situations, how we see our kids and how we see our marriages.
The chorus says:
“Let them see You in me.
Let them hear You when I speak
Let them feel you when I sing
Let them see You in me”
We need to have the prayer that God will still be glorified in our lives at all times regardless the situation. Are we willing to stand when the walls around us are falling? Are we willing to see God be glorified? Are we willing to let our children, grandchildren, spouse, neighbors, friends and co-workers see Christ in us? You may be the only Jesus they may see.
Will I be reconciled with my four children? I know that it will happen, but I don’t know how. The reality is they are God’s children. Just as God gave me four of my own children He also gave me four children that are not my birth children. All I say is God, let them see You in me.
Court, Kay, Nos and Jay, you are a gift from God. You are my drive and my love. And to the other four children so close in my life, you too are God’s gift and blessing in my life.
CAL
Life can be so cruel and unjust. As I sit here to write, I open my computer to the picture of my smiling children. Just a day ago one of the worst tragedies involving my children happened to me.
Over the past almost five years my former wife accused me of such wickedness dragging me through court. As a result she asked a forth judge to remove all parental rights from me where I would never again see them or talk to them until they became adults. The worst was when I heard a judge grant her wish and further it with his mocking of my relationship with them.
Five years. It is my labor of love. It brings me to tears as both of my dreams were stolen from me. It was first my marriage and now my kids. The two things God gave and the two things the enemy stole from me.
As I sit looking at the pictures of my kids and listing to music, I ask God let them see You in me. When they see me may they see You.
Yet through this tragedy I ask the same thing in each day until that day of restoration happens. Two weeks ago, at church, a guest pastor came and spoke about us being an impact on the children around us. Maybe it is the children under our roof. Maybe it is the children who may not be ours, a step child, a neighbor kid, a niece or nephew.
So as I wait I remain resolved until that day of restoration. I stand taking the opportunity to bless my nephews, my nieces, their kids and yes even my soon to be step children. As I open up in love, but with caution I realize something. I find God’s love pouring over a broken man who has felt defeated as a father through these children. It is their words of encouragement, desire to stand by my side and just say “hey I love you” with their hug.
The most encouraging word that was given to was from my fiancée’s daughter. She said, “Everyone wants a little happiness, no one wants pain, but you can’t have a rainbow without a little rain” capped off with an I love you.”
What happens though when we feel we have been kicked when we are down? Do we give up on God or do we trust His better plan when nothing makes sense and the false accusations go flying? Are we willing to allow God refine us when we are in the waiting room of reconciliation?
Just before I went to court to get the wind knocked out of me I heard a song I had only heard once before which has been my prayer for the year. In JJ Weeks song “Let Them See You” they sing a prayer of how we need to see our situations, how we see our kids and how we see our marriages.
The chorus says:
“Let them see You in me.
Let them hear You when I speak
Let them feel you when I sing
Let them see You in me”
We need to have the prayer that God will still be glorified in our lives at all times regardless the situation. Are we willing to stand when the walls around us are falling? Are we willing to see God be glorified? Are we willing to let our children, grandchildren, spouse, neighbors, friends and co-workers see Christ in us? You may be the only Jesus they may see.
Will I be reconciled with my four children? I know that it will happen, but I don’t know how. The reality is they are God’s children. Just as God gave me four of my own children He also gave me four children that are not my birth children. All I say is God, let them see You in me.
Court, Kay, Nos and Jay, you are a gift from God. You are my drive and my love. And to the other four children so close in my life, you too are God’s gift and blessing in my life.
CAL
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