Friday, April 19, 2013

No one understands

I caught myself the other day. I was bemoaning something. And I was feeling a bit sorry for my self. 

No one understands.  I know this. I can help. No one wants me.

What am I speaking in a voice only audible to dogs? I wish people would listen.

It is not a happy place to be. Where you find yourself willing, able and ready to help, only to find there is no one who wants you to help.  It starts to feel like they don't want you at all. 

It hurts. I know it does. We feel alone. We feel like our voices are not heard. Even if we have many gifts if no one wants them, how are we to share?

I felt as invisible as a snowy owl against the late season snow.  And that my friend is pretty invisible. And silent too. 


I am learning though. I am learning humbly that I am so very very wrong. Someone does understand. Someone does get it.

Who? Jesus!

Who rejected our Lord? We did.
Who would not listen? People.
Who decided they knew better than God? Yep, people again.

Jesus made water into wine.  He woke the dead. He healed the sick. He bore the weight of all the sins in the world - past and present and future. 

Even in the Garden He was alone because His exhausted disciples slept.   Knowing the horror He faced, they still fell to human exhaustion.  Everyone of them except the plotting Judas.

You know who else understands? The devil does. And he uses it against us every chance he gets.

He whispers to us. They don't get you. You are not good enough.  You are too strange. You are too pushy. You pray too much. You are a hypocrite. You are a bad parent.  You are........

So, to sound like Yoda: in the middle are we. Smack dab in the middle. With a choice to make.

IF THEY BOTH UNDERSTAND, WHICH ONE DO WE FOLLOW?

Jesus - who knows, understands and still loves and cherishes us?

The devil - who knows, understands and laughs at how it weakens us?

Jesus - who was there when we were knitted together in the womb.

The devil - who was there to taunt us at every fall, failure and misstep.

Would we want our children to choose love or hate? LOVE! ALWAYS LOVE.

So why don't we choose love as well?  Jesus understands, and loves us still. LOVES US MORE.

Isn't that enough?

Philippians 2:14-16 (NIV)

14 Do everything without grumbling or arguing, 15 so that you may become blameless and pure, “children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.”[a] Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky 16 as you hold firmly to the word of life. And then I will be able to boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor in vain.

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