Several months ago, Randy began the time-consuming task of transferring many years’ worth of home videos to our desktop computer so he can later burn them to DVDs.
There was no quick way to do this. Every minute of every tape had to be played on the camcorder so it could be digitally captured and saved on the computer.
I don’t have much to say about the Song of the Month for August other than this.
If you’re shakily poised on the cusp of something new, if the way ahead is murky, if the unknown looms large, if you know what you’re supposed to do but lack the confidence to plow ahead, “Frontiers” by Vertical Church Band is for you.
I started blogging when my daughters were well past their preschool years and I don’t often write about parenting subjects. While I am a mom who blogs, I’ve never considered myself to be a “mommy blogger.”
After last week’s post about what I wish someone would have said to me during a particularly grueling season of motherhood, though, it seemed to make sense to continue this theme a bit longer.
A few weeks ago, while searching on my computer for something I wrote several years ago, I ran across a file from August 2008 titled “What I Wish.”
I don’t recall every detail from when my children were small, but I clearly remember writing this piece. Lilly had just started first grade. The year before, she had attended morning kindergarten and usually took a much-needed nap in the afternoon. Now that she was going to school all day, the nap was no longer possible.
Earlier this year, I led a women’s study at my church about how God uses the hard things in our lives to make us more useful.
Although we covered a broad range of topics over the course of 10 weeks, one that stands out for me was the session about the wilderness—that dry, desolate landscape that has the potential to transform our hearts like nothing else.
I’ve spent a few long seasons in the wilderness, so it was a deeply personal class for me. But the stories I shared from my own life were merely an entry point for the women in the class to consider their own experiences with this exhausting and often-confusing place.
We talked about what the wilderness looks like, why it’s so hard and why God allows us to linger there. I closed the class with the following thoughts about the wilderness. It’s by no means an exhaustive summary, but if you are trudging through a desert of your own right now, I hope it provides perspective and encouragement for you today.
• Every Christian goes through wilderness experiences, some more than others.
• God is sovereign over the wilderness. He tests us and may allow sifting, but whatever happens, we are never completely at the mercy of Satan.
• Sometimes we don’t know we’re in the wilderness until we’re well into it.
• When we’re in the wilderness, we need to accept the fact that we are there and might be there for quite some time.
• Not every hard or inconvenient thing is the wilderness.
• Sometimes the wilderness is difficult because it’s so intense; sometimes it’s the length of time is that makes it hard.
• When we are at the end of our rope in the wilderness, God will strengthen us.
• When we get a respite in the wilderness, we should try to enjoy it. Cue a verse I’ve loved forever: “Then they came to Elim where there were twelve springs of water and seventy date palms, and they camped there beside the waters.” (Exodus 15:27)
• Life goes on in the wilderness. Just because we’re there doesn’t mean we’re going to be miserable all the time.
• While in the wilderness, we should remember that God is with us, but not expect Him to live up to our expectations of what He will look like or do.
• Things are not always as they seem in the wilderness. Just as deserts have mirages, so our foggy minds can play tricks on us. Cue another verse that is one of my go-to prayers: “Send Your light and Your truth; let them lead me.” (Psalm 43:3)
• When we’re at our lowest points—laid bare with no idea how to move forward—we need to claw through to the realization that God is enough.
• If we are in the wilderness due to no fault of our own, its because our loving heavenly Father deems it necessary. It’s the right place to be if He has allowed us to be there.
• If we get there because we’ve run away or made bad choices, God is still there. We need to move toward Him; He will redeem.
• God leads us and takes care of us in the wilderness, even when sin puts us there.
• God uses the wilderness to do His transforming work.
• It may be hard to see except in retrospect, but one heart issue that God often deals with in the wilderness is pride.
• When we’re in the wilderness, the work we’re best at or value most may need to be set aside, temporarily and perhaps even permanently.
• Some wilderness experiences end victoriously; some end quietly.
• Even when we can see the wilderness in our rear view mirror, we may never be completely “over it.” Scars and sadness may always serve as reminders of where we’ve been and how it has affected us.
• The wilderness will change us, so our ministries may be completely different once we leave than they were before we got there. Remember: God doesn’t just have one assignment for us in life; He gives us different ones during different seasons.
• When the rough terrain becomes smooth again, we need to appreciate where we are, which is NOT in the wilderness.
Now that you’ve read my list, I would love to know: What has the wilderness taught you that you may not have learned somewhere else?
♥ Lois
P.S. Linking up this week with Kelly Balarie at Purposeful Faith, Jennifer Dukes Lee at #TellHisStory, Holley Gerth at Coffee for Your Heart, Lyli Dunbar at #ThoughtProvokingThursday, Crystal Twaddell at #FreshMarketFriday and Dawn Klinge at Grace & Truth.
I can’t believe I’m going to admit this in a public venue, but sometimes, I secretly roll my eyes when something wonderful happens and someone exclaims, “God is so good!”
I don’t react this way because what the person says isn’t true, or even because I think he or she shouldn’t say it. Clearly,giving God credit for the blessings He kindly bestows is an obvious and appropriate response in many situations.
Rather, it’s because it sort of amuses me that I don’t think I’ve ever heard someone proclaim this phrase when something bad happens, even though God’s goodness supersedes human circumstances and is always present, no matter what.
It might sound a tiny bit like a cliché when we repeat it in church, but it’s solid biblical truth.
God is good, all the time (Psalm 23:6 and Psalm 136:1).
And although a conscientious person would never carelessly toss out phrases about God’s goodness to someone in the throes of suffering, when it’s properly understood, this aspect of His character can provide great comfort and encouragement in the midst of a trial.
You could probably fill a library with all the non-fiction books that have been written about why God allows suffering. But when Randy and I were dealing with infertility many years ago, it was actually a passage from a novel that touched my aching heart so much I just had to include it in the book I later wrote about the subject.
In the following excerpt from my book, I describe what is happening in the story, then share a powerful quotation from Heathersleigh Homecoming by Michael Phillips.
• • •
A woman named Hope had served for a time as a missionary in New Zealand. She and her husband were enjoying their ministry and expecting their first child when a leader in their village turned on them, killing her husband and burning their home.
The shock of it sent her into labor, but the baby didn’t survive. This tragedy forced Hope to totally rethink her faith. “How can I believe in God’s goodness after what had happened?” she asked herself over and over again.
She sank into deep despair. Then one day, after she had returned home to London, a chance opportunity to help a lost little boy find his mother made her realize that despite her doubts and self-absorption, she was still capable of kindness and goodness.
Upon recognizing that the goodness within her had come from God, she came to the conclusion that God truly was good, and that His goodness wasn’t meant to take away the world’s suffering, but to provide a refuge in the middle of it. As the following excerpt shows, this realization transformed the way she looked at life.
“What I came to accept was simply this … that God is good.”
A long silence followed.
“Only that and nothing more,” Sister Hope added, “—God is good.
“It does not mean that things in my life will always be good … but that God is good. It does not mean that my life will be an easy one … but that God is good. It does not mean that my prayers will always be answered in the way I would like … but that God is good. It does not mean that tragedy may not visit me … but that God is good. It does not mean that there will not always be suffering in the world … but that God is good. It does not mean that there will not be times when I am so overcome by sadness at memories in my life that I must go outside and find a place to be alone and just cry for an hour … but that God is good. It does not mean that there will not continue to be many who will deny his very existence because of the pain and seeming unfairness of life they see all around them … but that God is good. It does not mean that there will not always be many questions for which we have no answers … but that God is good.
“God’s goodness is the larger truth over the whole, the largest truth overspreading all of life—over cruelty, over suffering, over tragedy, over doubts, over despair, over broken relationships, over sin itself. Why God’s goodness doesn’t eliminate such things, I don’t know. Perhaps we shall ask him one day. For some reason our tiny human minds cannot comprehend, God has allowed suffering in his universe. I don’t know why. You and I might have done it differently. But then we are not God, so it is impossible for us to see all the way into the depths of the matter. We therefore cannot perceive the many ways in which the very suffering we rail against may in fact contribute to the overall eternal benefit and growth of God’s universe and its created beings.
“We cannot see to the bottom of such things. So we foolish creatures look at the world’s suffering and say God must not exist, or if he does he must not care, or must be a cruel God. Yet I suspect that when we are one day able to see all the way into it, we will see that Goodness and Love lie at the root even of all the suffering that was ever borne by this fallen humanity of which we are part. The devil is presently having his brief illusion of triumph, but God’s goodness will reign in the end.”
She paused, then added, “In short, the circumstances of life do not always seem to be good, but God himself is always good. Thus, though there may not always be happiness, there is always hope. That must be the basis for our faith—not that God gives us a happy life.”
• • • •
A couple of decades have passed since I first read that passage from Heathersleigh Homecoming, and its impact is as strong now as it was then. If you find yourself in a spot where you need to reflect on God’s goodness today, I hope this has helped.
♥ Lois
Note: This post includes an excerpt from my book Infertility: Finding God’s Peace in the Journey (Harvest House, 2003), available here.