"You take my heart and tear it all apart and leave me helpless but not alone.
I'm devastated by Your love, like a tree beneath the wind
Broken for the building of a cross before all men.
The devastation of your love is so hard to understand
that pain and perfect love could possibly go hand in hand.
I'm not able, but You are able to bring forth life through any suffering or loss!
No I'm not able,
But You are able!
When I am shaken what's left standing is your cross." - Dennis Jernigan
Watch the whole song here: Devastated by Your Love
It's popular nowadays to say that God is in no sense responsible for the acutely difficult times that we all face. I don't get it. When passing through valleys of brokenness and troughs of hopelessness, I can't conjure a more lovely thought than that the infinitely wiser than me Creator-God, my Father and my friend, has so decided to personally arrange my steps in a way such that I walk into an intensely thick fog with an end unseen.
I don't understand why everybody does not earnestly desire a God about whom they can say with the psalmist in all verity (Psalm 119:75): "I know, O LORD, that your rules are righteous, and that in faithfulness you have afflicted me."
We can place the 'blame' for the cause of our affliction on our own bad choices. We can even place the 'blame' for the cause of our affliction on our own sinful attitudes. I don't know the circumstances that surrounded the crafting of Psalm 119, but the psalmist chose to say that in a very ultimate sense, it is because of the faithfulness of God that we are afflicted! I can in nowise consider a more trustworthy afflictor than the Savior that loves me with an infinite love! If He who sacrificed communion with the godhead so that I, John David Skinner could be adopted as one of His own sons, there isn't a chance in the universe in a moment of such comparative triviality, He would or even could ever leave me.
I'm getting tired of trying to fill the God-shaped hole in my spirit with everything else. There is nothing else that is anywhere close to good enough. Jesus is so much sweeter.
He is my hope.
.DSN.
He is my hope.
.DSN.
When I was in college there were a couple of songs that I seemed to think on over and over. One was, "Hast Thou not seen how thy desires e'er have been granted in what He ordaineth [hard though it be]?" Old English...I know...but the truth was that what was happening, though unbeknownst to me was exactly what I, in my heart, wanted, i.e. to receive ultimate peace and happiness. He works so we'll find it in Him. That's what you're saying, right?
ReplyDeleteHere was another great line from a song, "within the kingdom of His might, lo, all is just and all is right. To God all praise and glory." Beautiful expressions from suffering saints. Thanks for the blog!! Love you, Mom
This is a beautiful line..."I can't conjure a more lovely thought than that the infinitely wiser than me Creator-God, my Father and my friend, has so decided to personally arrange my steps in a way such that I walk into an intensely thick fog with an end unseen." God ministers His grace through you to me in some really meaningful ways. I think there are whole seasons of life that are like a thick fog (like...I've been through a season like that for many years). I'm glad that God ordains these, and really no one else would ever know what those seasons are, nor do they readily share "Oh yeah, I've been in a thick fog for a while now." How many times do people look like they have clarity but still move ahead but are clinging by faith to God like the heroes in Hebrews 11 did? Wandering around in animal skins and living in caves....no Scriptures to pull out of a pocket and read....just seemingly endless survival tactics. As I'm talking with some very nice Christian people this weekend while singing at some churches in the Midwest, I'm trying harder to know what makes them tick, since I have to work a little at communicating and getting through the "personal comfort cushion" that seems a little thicker than it does in New England. This is giving me a fresh reminder of your thoughts while trying to figure out the nature of the faith of those who process life a good bit differently than I do, both culturally and theologically. I'm thinking "yup...they don't know what's going on either." I think it's ubiquitous to hide that it feels unfaithful to admit this. I appreciate your thoughts on this idea. Praise God for His leading you into and through the fog.
ReplyDeleteLove,
Dad
Laura Story has a song called "Blessings" that suggests that our trials in this life actually ARE the blessings that He gives us. Seemed a similar thought, and - the song has been a blessing to me lately.
ReplyDeleteThat song is a fantastic song- it really does communicate a similar message but not in a stereotypical Christianese way
Delete