Friday, September 13, 2013

WHY DO THINGS GO WRONG WHEN WE TRY TO BE SO RIGHT?

Let me guess.  Lately you seem to have more days where you are worn down and out than up and in? Ummm, I wondered.  Me, too.

Why do things seem to go so wrong when our only intent is to get so many things done right?  What's up with disappointment, with discouragement, and with failure?

Is there hope of breaking this mold?

Yes.

But in my case, and I wonder about yours, the process doesn't seem to take Easy Street the way I had it figured in my mind.

Why things go wrong is to break us from our stubborn and self-sufficient independence.  The most of us reading this are steeped in American culture which can include a pride in independence.  We are movers and shakers.  We expect to get results.

Yet the kingdom lifestyle is dependent upon a King.  He requests and requires our submission.  We don't do submission well.  It bugs us.  Give us enough time and we can accomplish most anything.

So God gives us time; time to fail, time to try again, time to whine and complain, time to blame, and time to finally reach the end of our ropes.  At last we get it; our righteousness is not a self one but a Saviored one.

I get very discouraged with me.  I feel younger; not older.  I like my church role better; not less.  But I get so frustrated that I am this age and so useless, ignorant, and disoriented.  The more I read about God from His Word or from words of other authors, the more I realize how less I am....which is precisely His pattern.  But I don't enjoy the feeling of realizing how little I am.

I had hoped that by this time I would have become rather big!

When things don't go right, stop.  Observe.  Detect.  Most likely great lessons of the King are within reach. See them.  Accept them.  Use them.  And then be a blessing to Him and others because you have learned again the value of decreasing that He might increase.

Why do things go so wrong?  We are slow learners.  We require repeat frustrations because we tend to not learn the first or second time around.  He alone can give us an abundant life which would be much more than the one we would have provided from our own intellect and skill.

Try to relax.  Turn the stresses of life into classrooms on how to depend on God more.


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