That Point
Sometimes you just get to a point.
You get to a point when “frazzled” is an understatement.
You get to a point when everything that could go wrong, does go wrong.
You get to a point when you just want to throw your hands up in the air and call it quits.
Call it quits on the world. Call it quits on all the effort and energy you put into so many things that no one seems to notice. Call it quits and simply crawl into bed and under the sheets, enveloping yourself in darkness as you try (in some small way) to escape from the trials, challenges, and obstacles of the world. It doesn’t actually work, but when you’re at “that point” well… that seems like the only way to make anything make sense.
I think everyone has gotten to “that point” before. Goodness, you could feel like you’re teetering on the brink of “that point” right now. I know I’ve been there and I’m guessing that’s a place I’ll probably end up re-visiting at various times of this sometimes frustrating and confusing thing called life.
For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Jeremiah 29:11
Our "not so tiny" world -- John Hancock Center: Chicago, IL
Some things are easy to read and say, yet trusting and truly believing them can often be an entirely different story. I say I trust and believe in God and I do, but when things get hard and my world seems to be turned upside down and inside out – believing God’s plans to “prosper” and “not harm,” his plans to “give hope”…well, I’m not always convinced.
You know, when I view my life with the magnifying glass of me - thinking only of my tiny world - bad becomes terrible and challenges are worthless deterrents that make my days unpleasant and trying.
But that magnifying glass misses so much. It misses the people I interact with, the community in which I live, and the countless gifts that I’ve found BECAUSE of those challenges, not in spite of.
That magnifying glass misses the God who does indeed provide for me and whose perfect plans will always be for my best.
So often I forget to lay the magnifying glass aside, to take a deep breath, and to simply trust in the Lord who has never left me and never will. They say hindsight is 20/20 and looking back at various challenges and seemingly insurmountable obstacles in my life, it’s pretty extraordinary.
It’s extraordinary the way God can and does use tiny insignificant people like me, people who find themselves at “that point” more often than they want to admit, for beautiful things.
