** Our prayers go out to the friends and family of Michele Dufault, who passed away last night. If only there were words for such a shocking tragedy that I could offer. For those of you who knew her or who find her passing particularly upsetting, please be sure you talk to someone (and feel free to email me or any of the other YCF leaders). May your grief lead you to peace.
Blessings and prayers to Michele and her family.
"Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted." --Matthew 5:4
BIBLE READING FOR THE DAY:
You who are the hope of Israel, its Savior in times of distress,
why are you like a stranger in the land, like a traveler who stays only a night?
Why are you like someone taken by surprise, like a warrior powerless to save?
You are among us, Lord, and we bear your name;
do not forsake us!...
Have you rejected Judah completely? Do you despise Zion?
Why have you afflicted us so that we cannot be healed?
We hoped for peace, but not good has come,
for a time of healing, but there is only terror.
We acknowledge our wickedness, Lord, and the guilt of our ancestors;
we have indeed sinned against you.
For the sake of your name do not despise us;
do not dishonor your glorious throne
Remember your covenant with us, and do not break it.
Do any of the worthless idols of the nations bring rain?
Do the skies themselves send down showers?
No, it is you, Lord our God.
Therefore our hope is in you, for you are the one who does all this.
-- Jeremiah 14:8-9, 19-22
THOUGHT: This passage is about a time of drought in Israel-- in the rest of the chapter it describes the thirst of the people, the weariness of all the animals, the desolation in the land... it's really sad.
Yet I love the passion of this passage-- the writer who looks up and faces the Lord-- and demands God's presence, who honestly cries out for him to save and help. I think there's something beautiful in taking right up to God all our anger, our frustration, our desperation, our honest ideas of what is fair and just, what we want, what we need, what we hope for. This is prayer!
Most-- if not all-- of us struggle at times with having faith in our idea of God. At some point, we might be frustrated with the way things are, or we might feel abandoned or forsaken, we might feel like God isn't as loving or as great as he's been made out to be. Or we might struggle with how to reconcile the hard things of the world-- things like drought and hunger and injustice-- with who God supposedly is. We might feel hurt or doubt or confusion or any number of questions.
But what do we do with those questions? Do we think them to ourselves and mumble under our breath and complain, and then turn and walk away and distract ourselves instead of dealing with them and actually asking them to someone who could answer? Or do we follow the footsteps of Jeremiah here and walk right up to God, telling him what we think, what we need, and asking him why, why why?
CHALLENGE: I am convinced, more from personal experience than anything, that God loves this kind of communication, that he wants us to be honest and to bring all of our emotions and questions right up to him. I have been angry with God before over broken relationships, life mishaps, and over injustices in the world. I have felt unreasonably sad, lonely, and even seriously depressed and asked him "why???", bringing my tears and hurting heart right up to him. I have been really confused and had to wrestle with things I've read in the Bible that don't seem to make sense with the God I know. Faith is not always a picnic!
But each time, when I make the choice for all of that honesty to get poured out in a conversation with God, something hopeful happens. A sense of expectation grows, a hope that there will be change, or that there will be answers, and a knowledge (however cheesy it sounds) that I'm not alone, and that God can be counted on to be listening and to love, even when I don't understand. And in my experience, that change comes! Sometimes as part of a long and complex story that God slowly reveals, sometimes through work that God leads us to be a part of so we can work with him to effect change. Sometimes the answers come through various experiences and conversations and random coincidences that are a little too coincidental to be random... and sometimes the answers come in being led-- in thought, prayer, and reflection-- to better questions, or to better understanding. Often, getting there requires trusting God (faith) and certain aspects of his character as being true. But finally, the process-- which can take anything from a few minutes to a few years-- always grows me into some sort of new peace and new sort of maturity/freedom.
That is my experience, but the challenge this week is for you to use Jeremiah as a model for a conversation of your own with God. What would you like to 'be talking to God about' for the next few weeks or months? What are your questions? What makes you angry? What makes you doubt? What do you not understand? What makes you upset or sad? What do you want to see change? You might even start the conversation at the most basic point, "I don't even know if you're real, but..." and go from there. Be completely and utterly honest-- not insulting or arrogant, but vulnerable and open, admitting where you are. But go into the conversation with high expectations for God, just like Jeremiah. Expect him to answer you, or to guide you to better questions, or to change things that you're talking about. And be ready to be challenged into trusting God in new ways.
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