"Holding the Bag"

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