So, What's the Plan?

I need God to help me out. Okay, that's not true. I need to listen to what God has known for billions of years. Yeah, that's much more like it.

I am overwhelmed with the needs of families in our community, and how it plays out in their teenagers lives. It's the old feeling of fighting the oncoming flood with nothing more than an umbrella. I feel outmatched, out powered, under equipped, and under resourced. So, I want to turn away from it.

There is so much brokenness, abuse, hurt, anger, hatred, and dispair in people. I've had six suicide threats in the last three weeks. What can I do? What can we do? We're just a church, how can we fix all of society?

Honestly, that's how I feel. That's what I think.

But even as I write this, I am reminded that the battle isn't against other people. It's against powers and spirits and Satan's forces. It is. They are the ones that need beaten back. People need rescued. I can't heal them. But I can fight for them. So, today, I am praying for God to give me the pieces of the Plan that He has. I'm going to seek for them even more this week. What will it hold? I don't know. But He does. That's more than enough.

Pray with me. Pray for the families in our town. Pray for other people to be drawn to His plan. I know there are already dozens working it out. I just need to figure out my role. You need to figure out yours. He is the one who has to solve the problems. We just have to follow.

Babylonians and Boyfriends

Back in Habakkuk today. The first few verses of chapter 1 hit me. While I'm not in this place right now, I can totally resonate with Habakkuk's attitude towards God. Injustice is all around him, and God isn't doing squat, it seems. I mean, He is the great protector, and we cry for help, and nothing. Just crickets chirping. You can feel Habakkuk's frustration and anger.

What is God's response? Is it full of hope and mercy? It seems like it in verse 5. Promises of amazing things that no one will believe.

But then He says He's going to raise up the Babylonians. It's like us praying, and God's answer coming that He is going to raise up the Al-Qaida network to a world power. We pray for justice, and that's the answer.

Ok, honestly, why does God do stuff like this? It really ticks me off sometimes. This answer is almost cruel. But then again, it's only so when seen through our scope. God is going to raise them up to bring His people back to Him. Worship is the goal of God. He wants His kids close, that's why He made the human race. To be in relationship with Him and be known by Him. When we dig in our heels, He will go to any length to get us back.

Spoke to a student yesterday who was dumped by her boyfriend. She felt like she had tried to do the relationship God's way, by including prayer into it and putting Him in the center, yet it still fell apart. Why? Why is God being so unfair? The answer is almost always that what we want in a situation is off base, and it makes God seem unfair. God wants us. He will use any tool He can, whether it be the Babylonians, a 17 year old boy, or anything else.

I don't know. I get all of this, but I don't always like it. Good thing I'm not the one in charge, I guess.

If I Could Just Sit With You Awhile....

Jesus shows up at Bethany, the home town for Lazarus, Mary, and Martha (John 11:17-37). Both Martha, and later Mary, come out and tell Jesus if he had been there, Lazarus wouldn't have died. I love this part of the story. As we've been going through the book of John, everyone wants Jesus to be a political king. That is the messiah they are looking for. But here, these women get it. They know Jesus is much more than that. Martha's statement that Jesus is the Christ, the son of God who was to come is more than a political hope. She, and her sister, see Him as one with power over everything, including death. Martha also shows a lot of intelligence in verse 24, because she speaks of the resurrection. This was a theological debate among the religious teachers of the day. It was one of the main issues that divided the Pharisees and the Sadducees. And Martha, being a woman who wasn't expected to be up on such issues in her day, had studied and made a decision. It's no wonder Jesus loved this family. Their faith is so strong, so vibrant, such a model for me.

Jesus' reaction has been taught on and discussed for hundreds and hundreds of years, but I am still completely changed by it every time I read it. Jesus weeps. Not little tears. He is moved to a deep hurt and tearful pain. But why? Everyone else is sad because Lazarus is gone, and they won't see him again. That isn't why Jesus is sad. He knows He is going to bring him back to life. He's known it for the past week or more. So why does Jesus cry?

I'm not sure. I think it has something to do with the fact that he loves Mary and Martha, and hates to see them in pain. Even though He is getting ready to get rid of all the pain they are feeling, He still hurts deeply for them. Sometimes we can fall into the trap of thinking that since God is perfect, since He knows how everything ends, then He is insulated from pain. I don't think that's true. Jesus knows it all turns out okay by the end of the day. He knows Lazarus is coming back. He knows their pain is getting ready to disappear. He's not hurting because of a worry of Lazarus dying later, and the sisters feeling the pain again. Heaven is waiting on Lazarus. No, Jesus is hurting because His little girls are hurting. It has nothing to do with fear, uncertainty, or worry for Jesus. He is hurting because He loves Mary and Martha and all of the others so much, that their pain penetrates His perfect heart and He weeps.

He still does today, I believe. I can't prove it. I could be wrong. But I believe that when we hurt, God hurts with us. Remember, He has proven that He isn't afraid of pain. I believe in His choosing to love us, He chooses to hurt with us.

If that's true, we really are never, ever alone. No matter what happens here, there is always someone to sit with us when we are down, when we are broken, when we are lost. And He completely gets it. He sits with us IN our pain, choosing to take it on Himself 100%.

God really, truly IS love at the deepest level.