How Far Will You Go?
From this time many of his disciples
turned back and no longer followed him. – John 6:66
How devoted are you to Jesus? How much do you love
Him? How far will you go when He calls you to a path not of your liking? What
will you do, how much will you sacrifice, to fulfill His calling on your life?
It’s easy to follow Jesus when the path is sure and the
work light and easy. It’s a good life, we tell ourselves. God is good, we share
boldly.
And then, one day, it’s not. Your best friend gets a
cancer diagnosis and, after surgery and treatments and hours of prayer, dies.
Your husband spends years building a career that provides a good life for your
family until, one day, his company goes under and you’re left with a meager
bank account and no prospects for a new job.
Should I go on? There’s the child you’ve asked God to
protect and guide since before he was born. He’s addicted to drugs. Maybe you
thought you’d found the perfect church only to hear another church member
gossiping and spreading ugly untruths about you. Maybe you’re infertile, or
alone, or your husband is having an affair.
Do you still follow Jesus throughout it all? Do you
still love Him and trust Him? Do you still believe He wants what is best for
you?
Life rarely turns out the way we’d imagined. Our
plans, well, they rarely direct our lives. God has a way of showing up and
turning our world upset down. Sometimes it hurts. Always it ends up growing us
and molding us into the people He wants us to be.
Staying the course is hard. It’s not like God gives us
a map. We don’t get to preview the twists and turns before they happen. We don’t
get to choose only good things.
I get it. I do. But here’s a hard truth: It’s in the hard times, the hurtful moments,
that we grow the most. It’s when we have nowhere else to turn that we finally
cry out to the only One who can fill us with His peace, healing us from the
inside out.
That’s when some people turn away. They want an easy
button. They don’t want to walk through the pain. They don’t want to suffer.
They don’t want to believe God knows best when He says no. They don’t want to
trust when Jesus says wait.
It’s easy to turn to other things, isn’t it? Alcohol and
pills dull the pain. Stuff, whether it’s the latest electronic gadget or a new
outfit, makes us feel better. We can relax in front of the television, binging
on escapism programming as we stuff unhealthy foods into our already overweight
bodies. We don’t need Jesus. We can take care of ourselves. That’s what we tell
ourselves anyway.
What about you? Can you stay the course, trusting Him,
when the way is rocky and the final outcome uncertain? Can you believe in Him,
in His goodness, in His love, when life hurts?
We don’t always get the answers we want in life. We
don’t always understand why He allows us to hurt so deeply when we’ve tried so
hard to follow Him? Through it all He changes us, molds us, until one day we
look up and realize we’re really thankful we stayed the course and trusted Him
through the hard times.
No comments:
Post a Comment