Month: January 2019

Soul Help

Soul Assault

 

“You’re…a mirage, an oasis in the distance and then nothing…”

Jeremiah to God (Jer. 15:18)

  About 600 years BC the Israelites had gone through all the motions of “religion” and were living just like the other nations, with all their pagan practices including sacrificing their children to another god. Reform had come but was only skin deep.  God had pleadingly given His people so many chances to turn.

In a most wrenching treatise of offense, God lets Jeremiah know He must stop the carnage, the entitlement, the flippancy.  (Jere. 2)  Jeremiah holds the warning before them and they scoff, they bully, they claim, “God is with us.”  And Jerusalem had no idea what was coming.

Jeremiah is done.  Angry, hurt and lonely.  No one listens.  He’s had so much come against him; bombarded with one thing after another.  You almost expect him to storm out and quit. But what does he do?

He comes bare and raw to the Lord.  He speaks his mind and to me it feels irreverent and accusatory.  He’s SO honest.  He brings all the reality, the mess, the sheer emotion without hiding or minimizing any of it.  And God is glad that he does. But he doesn’t leave him there.

“Prayer is a constant re-establishment of our priorities.”

Run with Horses, E Peterson, p.103

Our lives and circumstances throw all kinds of wrenches in our thinking, planning and dreaming.  God hears Jeremiah out; doesn’t squelch his outcry.  Perhaps He’s been waiting for the truth to come out, to be faced and owned. That’s when you get to the real core beliefs, the real wrestling, where names are changed.  We have to get there, but sometimes it takes years.

God’s patient response is not pandering because he knows what staying with those kinds of volatile emotions does to a person.  He’s out for our good.  He basically says, “I’m glad you came to Me.  I feel the same rejection and pain. This is heart wrenching.  I hear you and know how difficult it is.  But I also strengthen you for it. My plan is coming about. So, let’s return to your priorities… Your goal is not that they follow you, but you follow Me.  Return to Me.  (Jere. 15:19)

Our rock bottom goal is following our God.  Sometimes emotions, mild or fierce, are windows into what’s going on in us that’s unseen or maybe even unconscious.

  Have you let God in on your raw emotion to re-establish your priorities?  

Soul Help

Soul Slump?

January lends itself to soul slumps, it seems.  The inevitable overwhelm of things that need
to happen, and the underwhelm of motivation to make a move, or to prioritize,
all while wondering if any of it really matters.  We are funny creatures with our highs and
lows, our beauty and brutality, our needed-ness and our neediness. 

I remember someone profoundly saying in these situations, “Just do the next thing.”  And as obvious as that seems, it’s actually helpful as the fleeting flurry of festivities screeches into the jolting juncture of January.  (We just celebrated three of our kids’ weddings in the last 6 months, plus the holidays. Now that’s a jolting juncture!) 

So, my “Do the next thing(s)” today were

  • laundry, and being thankful for washer and drying rack.
  • answering a few important emails, and being thankful I can contribute to someone’s life in a positive way.
  • taking some alone moments to think, pray and acknowledge my soul slump and receive grace, wisdom and energy from above.

“…strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience; joyously giving thanks…”  Col. 1:11

And I slowly begin to straighten, my gaze turning upward.

Let yourself be where you are.  Then you can move from there.  Instead of begrudging the excess belly (or whatever your excess was), be glad you celebrated well and enjoyed it.  There’s a time for feasting!  And a time for getting back to enjoying temperance.