Something I could have used

Hope. That is something I could have used at a particular time in my life when my faith in God was almost shipwrecked.

It was an issue that so many teenagers like me were facing and it seems rather insignificant now. Yet, when I was going through it, it seemed all but insurmountable. I had been planning a trip to Niagara Falls during the Summer between my Junior and Senior year in high school and I had a ton of friends lined up to go. It was going to be big and I was pinning a lot of who I was on the success of the trip; a success that which was largely defined by how many people that were accompanying me. Then, one by one, my friends dropped out for various reasons. Most of them seemed like they had good excuses, but I saw every one as a personal affront to me. I was so self-absorbed that every time someone backed out I knew it was due to something I lacked or something I had that was not attractive to them. I wondered where God was and why He thought that this was the best path forward. I questioned His love and provision in my life and wanted some answers from Him.

He would answer me...more profoundly than I had ever imagined that He would. Or even could.

It was then that, unbeknownst to me, He re-directed my path to an utterly satisfying destination. He had gotten a hold of my heart to never let go of it. It would take another year or so for Him to completely wake me from my slumber and instill in me the hope, grounded in the finished work of His Son on the cross, which I could have used those days that lead me only into more darkness. But the good that came out of that struggle, literally, cannot be measured. He showed me something that I now know: He is fashioning me into the likeness of His Son.

No matter what I go through, no matter the struggle or the pleasure, He has started a work in me, a good work, that He will complete. Nothing can stop it; nothing can accelerate it; nothing can slow it down; nothing can arrest the loving act of Him making me more like Christ. Not even me.

And the steady turn of the Potter's wheel continues this very minute. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

tightvnc keyboard mapping problem in Ubuntu 9.04

Image
I have been, off and on, having an issue with the keys on my keyboard mapping to the correct values when using the tightvnc client when paired with the vncserver vino in Ubuntu 9.04. I am not exactly sure what keyboard layout the client and server was expecting, but it seemed like every time I restarted the OS the keyboard mapping problem would come back and I would be at square one again. Well, I think I have found the workaround I was looking for . Hopefully this will help anyone else that is having this issue.
Read more

The manifestation of the "I" and the gift of self - Part 1

I am continuing my journey through Pope John Paul II's Theology of the Body and I had never realized how body-focused the 2nd and 3rd chapters of Genesis truly are.  But then it all makes so much more sense when it was brought to my attention that the body we have been given in a manifestation of me, or to put it another way, the "I". And it goes beyond that still. Not only does it reveal me, but my body also reveals, in no small measure, the image of God. That is not to say that God is made of flesh like me as is depicted in so many Renaissance paintings. The old man in the sky is nothing like the God as revealed in the Bible. However, the love that God is, the holiness that he is, the justice he is, the righteousness that he is...all of it is shown to the world through my body. In a very real way, my body allows for others, and for me, to participate in the mystery (the hiddenness) of the image of God. That is by design; from the beginning.  If God is revealed in nature...
Read more

Let me learn what I need to learn

In the “I don’t know what God is trying to produce in me…” portion of the blog: I work across (not with) an incredibly loud person. We are in cubes and he refuses to use a handset when he is in a conference call…or headphones. Everything is done via speaker phone. Maybe his handset is broken? I don’t know and am too timid (read “interested in keeping the peace”) to ask him. Of course he shouts into his speaker phone as well when he talks. Now he even refuses to use a keyboard. He has a speech recognition program that allows him to speak to the computer rather than type. Good for him! Now we can all hear “Comma…open parenthesis…close parenthesis…tab…tab...tab…” Was it my sin or my parents sin that relegated me to this placement in the office. We all know the answer to that but man…it sure feels like I am getting punished for something.
Read more