I was sat in one of the WORST CONFERENCE SETTINGS OF ALL TIME. Now when you’re stuck in one of those there is not that much room to move. You must endure … until the very end … until the very bitter end. What helped to endure was to take mental notes of how note to do conference settings.
Something that helped with the notes was a comment that a speaker made. He said (or droned, to be fair) that in the light of how old you get, you really should expect things to get easier. This comment usually gets knowing chuckles and a sense of agreement to the sentiment. Maybe it was the sheer rubbish nature of the conference but something snapped inside (it wasn’t the elastic of me trousers, thankfully). I said to myself ‘why?’ Why should life get easier? Is that really how God designed it?
If my brief sojourn is anything to go by, then the life gig is not about things getting easier, but it is about things becoming more joyful. By that I mean I realise that this life is a maturing process and for that to take place I must encounter opportunities that stretch and try me. Every episode reveals how dependent I must remain on God and how helpless I am in myself to overcome. Each challenge then leads me to take joy in how God helps me to see what He wants me to see and do what He wants me to do. Often I don’t want to do it. Often I don’t think I can do it. Often I don’t feel I can do it. And often He shows He does it through me, when I get to the end of myself and just enjoy Him.
Literally take joy in Him. That is recognising in Him my problem … may not be solved. It may persist. It may get worse. It may bring tears of frustration and howls of derision. It may bring sulks and moans. Then when I’ve got over that and see it from His perspective I recognise that He is the solution as He remains greater than any problem. If He wishes for me to endure, I must endure. If He wishes for me to overcome, I’ll overcome. If I am to be baffled … finish the sentence y’all. The idea is not the certainty of things getting easier and all questions being answered. It is the presence in the journey that brings joy even in the worst of times.
Thus as life goes on and doesn’t get easier, it should get more joyful … should of course, doesn’t mean always.
For His Name’s Sake
Shalom
dmcd
Life With CD 