Longsuffering part 3
When you can keep your cool when everybody else is losing there's... that's when you've really found something. Something called maturity. Something called patience. Something called longsuffering. My wife posted Romans 8:18 today on her Facebook, and it seemed appropriate for my Rant today. "Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will reveal to us later" (NLT). In other words... all things work together for good. All things don't LOOK good, or FEEL good, but they all WORK TOGETHER for good. I started this Rant series with the idea of talking about why, and how, love never fails. And it is simply because love endures. Charity (love in action) is longsuffering. God doesn't disqualify us when we mess up. In fact, look at Isaiah 30:20-21 (NLT), "Though the Lord gave you adversity for food and suffering for drink, he will still be with you to teach you. You will see your teacher with your own eyes. Your own ears will hear him. Right behind you a voice will say, "This is the way you should go," whether to the right or to the left." A voice behind you. Speaking from 2,000 years ago on an old rugged cross. A voice crying out, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do!" God is not in the punishment business. He IS, however, in the chastening and correcting business. He IS willing to redirect you when you get off that straight and narrow path. He has made the way straight--brought every mountain low and every valley high--so that we can walk easy on the way that leads to life. Now, having said that, even though the way is straight... it is narrow. To me that makes it much more simple, but to some it makes it more difficult to walk. People tend to want to go their own way. And make a lot of trouble for themselves. We don't have to do that. We can let the Word of God (which is Jesus, which is love) be a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path. We can let love shine and show us the way. We can let love lead us, and guide us, and direct us, and protect us. We can trust in love (have faith in God) even when things don't seem to be going the way we want them to. We can suffer through some things. Because we see our teacher with our own eyes. And what we see--WHO we see--is what we be. We know we are the Son(s) of God. But it is when Jesus is revealed (to us and in us and through us and as us) that we BE who we are. That we truly UNDERSTAND who we are. That doesn't always happen overnight though. Sometimes it takes baby steps. Which are still forward steps. Be longsuffering towards yourself. Don't give up when things get hard, or when you think you've made a mistake. If you never make any mistakes you can never learn from your mistakes. If you're too afraid to move, you'll always be where you are. Life is movement. Life is change. You're not who you were yesterday, and you're not who you're going to be tomorrow. Learn and grow. Continue on. Upward and onward. Upward and GOD-ward! Remember that it came to pass, not to stay. Remember that God always gives us a way to escape--or bear--our situation. There's a way through. And, quite frankly, it's THROUGH. What's the old song say? "If you're going through hell, keep on going!" The only true failure is failure to try. If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. Don't give up. Don't give in. What's coming is so much greater than what has been. Have patience. Look at the grand scheme, the big picture. And trust in the God who is love. I don't know what tomorrow holds, but I do know who holds tomorrow!