Look Up!

I have not been in a good place lately. There is no real need to go into the details ... we have all been in this place. Frustrated. Afraid. Overwhelmed. Confused. Emotional. And the list could go on.

Lately, my life has reminded me of the Dr. Seuss book, Oh, The Places You'll Go! My favorite passage is one that my kids can't begin to understand. But, I would be willing to bet that most of you have been there, and if you haven't, just hang on, you will be.

You can get so confused that you'll start in to race down long wiggled
roads at a break-necking pace and grind on for miles across weirdish wild space,
headed, I fear, toward a most useless place. The Waiting Place . . .

What are they waiting for? It doesn't really matter, does it.
What am I waiting for? I am not even sure that I will know it when I see it.

But, I don't want to stay here.

It's Wednesday, so we had church tonight. I didn't even want to go, which means that it was exactly where I needed to be. We only have about 20 or so at our mid-week prayer meeting, so it is easy to look at the faces of those sitting in their usual places around the sanctuary. And tonight, as I was struggling in the quicksand of my own waiting place, I began to think about their lives and the waiting they have done and are still doing in many cases. They each have a story and they each have been faced with the same decision that is staring me square in the face right now.

Do you trust Me?

It is easy to answer this question when things are going my way. But, that is not where I am today.

The question still remains. Do you trust Me? Do I? Do I trust Him to guide me when past mistakes paralyze me with the fear of repeating them? Do I trust Him when my mother's test results show that she needs to begin her chemo again next week after only having a one month break when she was hoping for two? What about when I can't see where He is leading and my husband's job is hanging in the balance? What about when my friends are hurting and I don't know how to help? What about ... and again the list goes on.

So, how do I answer this question? If I am really honest, I have to tell you that the answer is "no." In my own strength I don't trust God to be and do all that He promises. Thankfully, He doesn't expect me to do it in my own strength. Tonight, someone shared an article published in The Baptist Record that really brought things into focus for me. This statement says it all:

Regardless of what is happening down around your feet, Jesus is still
Lord and God is still on His throne. In the revelation of His own death and
departure Jesus said, "Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God,
believe also in me" (John 14:1). Look up and not down!

My problem is that I have been studying the shifting sands around my feet and ignoring the God who wants to lift me out of the dirt and set me on solid ground.

He's just waiting for me to look up.