Jeremiah 2:36
“‘Why do you go about so much, changing your ways?’ You will be disappointed by Egypt as you were by Assyria.”
It occurred to me last night while I was dipping a pretzel into my sugar/fat free chocolate pudding that I was not in the mood for pudding-covered pretzels. I wanted something else. Something more. The same thing happened two days ago. The buttered up popcorn was simply not hitting the spot. Nor had the hot chocolate. The Irish Breakfast tea. The melon. The cashews. The bowl of cereal.
I was hungry for something. I still don’t know what it is. I’m sitting here writing and my mind is concocting meals that will perhaps feed the hunger. Rachael Ray created a delicious sea bass with a cream leek sauce this morning on her talk show…I’m wondering if that could be it. Of course, I had seafood last night. And the crab legs left me wanting. The tilapia whetting my appetite for….for….WHAT?
I still don’t know. You think Rachael Ray could help this girl out!
Have you ever felt the need to fill up but can’t quite find what it is that will fill you? Not just with hungry stomachs. I’m talking about in life. Relationships. Careers. Bank accounts. Extracurricular activities. Something in you exclaiming you were meant to be a dancer, only to find ballet, break dancing and the Irish jig just aren’t working out for you. So, what then do you do with your inner dancer?
I wonder are we looking for fulfillment in the right place? Jeremiah 2:36 has gripped me today. Here we have the Lord asking Israel, “‘Why do you go about so much, changing your ways?’ You will be disappointed by Egypt as you were by Assyria.” Powerful statement from the mouth of the Living God. He is saying, ‘Nope. They are not going to do it for you! You can try them out all you want…but just as before you will again be left empty.’
Could it be that the Irish Jig and sugar/free chocolate pudding were never meant to be the source of our satisfied fulfillment? Sure, they can bring joy. And meet physical needs. But could it be that our quest for more is really the prodding of the Holy One?
Could it be today that you are contemplating becoming a professional pottery designer not because you have ever had a talent for it but because something is clearly missing?
I don’t know what is missing from your life today. It could be a list of things. But I encourage you to bring your thirst and hunger for that something to the feet of Christ. Stop looking to your ‘Egypt’ and ‘Assyria’ to fill the need and look to Him whom Psalm 107:9 tells us ‘satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things.’
I ask that for us today. That we would be filled with good things. Things worthy of our God, things that do not leave us hungering for the empty. He is our Lord, who delivers! And He urges us with a tender heart to, ‘Open wide our mouths and have them filled.’ (Psalm 81:10)
4.27.2007
4.21.2007
Mailbox Moments
Ps. 42:9
‘Sometimes I ask God, my rock-solid God, "Why did you let me down?”’
My mailbox moment occurred on June 7, 2004. It was not a good moment for me. My whole life just fell apart as I was standing right next to my home’s mailbox. From where I sit today, I can see the mailbox. And more often than I would like to admit I, late at night, grab a blanket, nestle myself in the front room of my house and look intently (almost expectantly) at the little box my magazines make their residence in.
Of two things I am sure during my midnight staring: I’ve never been more disappointed and I’ve never been more devastated than in my Mailbox Moment. For me it is one of those memories that I can press play on at any given time and watch it unfold as if it is right before my very eyes for the first time. It knocks the breath out of me whenever I remember. It still hurts all this time later.
I wonder if you can relate. Perhaps your Moment happened near a bird cage or a go-kart. Perhaps it happened in your kitchen. At the hospital. In a cemetery. Near an airport. Somewhere in the woods. At a BBQ. Perhaps you cannot even remember where you were in your Moment but you remember the weight and pain of it all too well.
During my late night mailbox peeking, “Sometimes I ask God, my rock-solid God, "Why did you let me down?”’ I’ve had many nocturnal question sessions with God about my Moment of disappointment and devastation. Not a day goes by without it running through my mind. Sure, it has gotten a lot easier but something always brings me back to that underlining query. Why did you let me down?
I think it is interesting that I continue to ask God why He let me down. I’ve long since recovered from the other person letting me down…but my God? My rock-solid God, letting me down? Now that strikes a cord within me. And I keep coming back, looking for an answer. Why? Why? Why?
Tonight it just hit me: I now look forward to my Mailbox Moments. That probably sounds emotionally sick – but I honestly find such reward in the open dialogue of those hidden minutes. I think what the Lord is teaching me is that I am not so much coming back looking for a reason for the let down …but am simply looking for a reason to come back.
You see my Mailbox Moments have become my Honest Pursuit – to even in disappointment and devastation not turn away from but turn to Christ. To lay before Him my wonderings, my hurts, my pain, my joy, my jokes. It is almost as if I come to the mailbox to send out my prayers.
There are so many truths about Christ to be discovered. Once you get a taste of Him, I know from firsthand experience that you instantly want more…What do you need more of today? Is it comfort? Joy? Answers? Evidence?
Jeremiah 29:12-13 throws us into God speaking, "When you call on me, when you come and pray to me, I'll listen. When you come looking for me, you'll find me. Yes, when you get serious about finding me and want it more than anything else, I'll make sure you won't be disappointed." Such a powerful promise but it is the next verse, 14, that has me thinking….
"I'll turn things around for you. I'll bring you back from all the countries into which I drove you"—God's Decree—"bring you home to the place from which I sent you off into exile. You can count on it.” Interesting. Here God’s promise ends with a telling confession. He will bring us back from all the countries into which He sent us…back from exile.
Isn’t that something? He speaks this to corporate, biblical Israel but it applies to us today. Where have you been in exile? At what caged memory have you been standing wondering and waiting for God to answer you on why He has let you down? And left you here?
I root on behalf of your heart’s honesty today. The Word of God clearly tells us when we get serious about finding Him and when we honestly call and pray, He listens. Maybe like me you were looking for mail in the wrong mailbox – and what you thought was a Heaven Letdown was in actuality a heavenly invitation for you to seek Him.
And even better find Him.
I’ve sometimes asked, “Why, Lord, have you let me down so?” Based on our Jeremiah findings today His answer renders me speechless, “So you will not be disappointed.”
Meet me at the mailbox tonight. Put your petitions and earnest cries out there. Test the waters. Be honest before Him. His Word declares He will bring us back home – and that is something we can count on.
‘Sometimes I ask God, my rock-solid God, "Why did you let me down?”’
My mailbox moment occurred on June 7, 2004. It was not a good moment for me. My whole life just fell apart as I was standing right next to my home’s mailbox. From where I sit today, I can see the mailbox. And more often than I would like to admit I, late at night, grab a blanket, nestle myself in the front room of my house and look intently (almost expectantly) at the little box my magazines make their residence in.
Of two things I am sure during my midnight staring: I’ve never been more disappointed and I’ve never been more devastated than in my Mailbox Moment. For me it is one of those memories that I can press play on at any given time and watch it unfold as if it is right before my very eyes for the first time. It knocks the breath out of me whenever I remember. It still hurts all this time later.
I wonder if you can relate. Perhaps your Moment happened near a bird cage or a go-kart. Perhaps it happened in your kitchen. At the hospital. In a cemetery. Near an airport. Somewhere in the woods. At a BBQ. Perhaps you cannot even remember where you were in your Moment but you remember the weight and pain of it all too well.
During my late night mailbox peeking, “Sometimes I ask God, my rock-solid God, "Why did you let me down?”’ I’ve had many nocturnal question sessions with God about my Moment of disappointment and devastation. Not a day goes by without it running through my mind. Sure, it has gotten a lot easier but something always brings me back to that underlining query. Why did you let me down?
I think it is interesting that I continue to ask God why He let me down. I’ve long since recovered from the other person letting me down…but my God? My rock-solid God, letting me down? Now that strikes a cord within me. And I keep coming back, looking for an answer. Why? Why? Why?
Tonight it just hit me: I now look forward to my Mailbox Moments. That probably sounds emotionally sick – but I honestly find such reward in the open dialogue of those hidden minutes. I think what the Lord is teaching me is that I am not so much coming back looking for a reason for the let down …but am simply looking for a reason to come back.
You see my Mailbox Moments have become my Honest Pursuit – to even in disappointment and devastation not turn away from but turn to Christ. To lay before Him my wonderings, my hurts, my pain, my joy, my jokes. It is almost as if I come to the mailbox to send out my prayers.
There are so many truths about Christ to be discovered. Once you get a taste of Him, I know from firsthand experience that you instantly want more…What do you need more of today? Is it comfort? Joy? Answers? Evidence?
Jeremiah 29:12-13 throws us into God speaking, "When you call on me, when you come and pray to me, I'll listen. When you come looking for me, you'll find me. Yes, when you get serious about finding me and want it more than anything else, I'll make sure you won't be disappointed." Such a powerful promise but it is the next verse, 14, that has me thinking….
"I'll turn things around for you. I'll bring you back from all the countries into which I drove you"—God's Decree—"bring you home to the place from which I sent you off into exile. You can count on it.” Interesting. Here God’s promise ends with a telling confession. He will bring us back from all the countries into which He sent us…back from exile.
Isn’t that something? He speaks this to corporate, biblical Israel but it applies to us today. Where have you been in exile? At what caged memory have you been standing wondering and waiting for God to answer you on why He has let you down? And left you here?
I root on behalf of your heart’s honesty today. The Word of God clearly tells us when we get serious about finding Him and when we honestly call and pray, He listens. Maybe like me you were looking for mail in the wrong mailbox – and what you thought was a Heaven Letdown was in actuality a heavenly invitation for you to seek Him.
And even better find Him.
I’ve sometimes asked, “Why, Lord, have you let me down so?” Based on our Jeremiah findings today His answer renders me speechless, “So you will not be disappointed.”
Meet me at the mailbox tonight. Put your petitions and earnest cries out there. Test the waters. Be honest before Him. His Word declares He will bring us back home – and that is something we can count on.
4.06.2007
Transgression Stilled
Dust on the path
Kicked in his eyes
Tears speaking words
Of glorious right
Pain in every crevice
Of a tattered man
Purpose driven in
The depth of the plan
Bound by offense
He did not commit
Price paid in full
Death He would omit
Cross on the hill
A tree stripped and bare
King of the Jews
Crown of thorns upon His hair
The Place of the Skull
Where evil was killed
Between two prisoners
Righteous blood spilled
Into the Father’s hands
His spirit He did entrust
And breathed His last
Just as He must
On the third day
Ancient prophecy fulfilled
From the darkened grave
Transgression stilled
What was red as crimson
Now the promise of snowy white
What was once stained scarlet
Now draped in the joy of Light
Christ! Christ! The Risen Messiah!
Bringing with Him life for those who tire.
Christ! Christ! The Risen Messiah!
Calling on those covered in mire.
With hands that bear scars
Of burden beyond compare
He comforts; He carries
And calms the turbulent care
To His heart, huddled and close
Whispering words of victory now
Christ, Christ my Risen Messiah
Before you, forgiven, I bow.
And with shaking hands
That Redemption has held
This Daughter weeps for joy
For You are ever more than I beheld!
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