Life Lesson VII - There's No Need To Fear....

At the beginning of this adventure, when things got bad, I prayed for a hero. I wanted someone to step into my life, roll up their sleeves and fix things. Maybe this comes from my own Dad issues or from my own weakness, but I longed for a champion who would make everything alright. I wanted someone who would tell me what I should do, who would defend me and who would pick me up. At times I thought it would be a friend and at other times I thought it would be the Father. (Sometimes I thought it would be the lottery.) I have been astonished and greatly humbled by the number of friends who have contacted me to let me know of their prayers and concern for Kathy and me - but no one person has stepped in with a magic wand to make everything OK – not even God. There are still struggles. There are still challenges. And I still search for direction in the new business.

We often want a God who will step into our lives and take over. We want a God – or sometimes anyone – who will defend us from gossip and rumor, insure our financial security, heal our every medical challenge and give us a clear set of instructions for living. If we have the choice between freedom and security, more often than not, we will trade our freedom for protection. Sadly, many of us are willing to relinquish our freedom in exchange for knowing that someone is going to make everything better.

If we want a God who will fix our problems, then the God revealed in Jesus Christ is not the one for us. Jesus followed him and it led Jesus to the cross. The Father did not make everything “OK” for Jesus. But, what the Father will do is intimately engage in my struggles. The fact that he does not make everything better does not mean that he is disinterested or indifferent. What it does mean is that he is taking my suffering and my pain into himself and experiencing it with me. He does not need a grand display of power to prove his might, but instead he takes my sin, my doubt, my fear, my anger, my deceit, my pride and my selfishness into himself and redeems it.

No matter what I pray for, the Father grants me what I need. No matter what I ask him to do or who I ask him to be, he remains faithful in his love.

Life Lesson VII – The Father engages me at my core.