That being said, if you haven’t read the “About” page, you may want to start there to get a sense of the overarching goal of this little corner of the interwebs. If you already have checked it out or are feeling contrary and simply don’t want to—well, then, let’s just get rolling, shall we?
---
I have been talking lately with a dear friend who is
in the midst of some life-altering matters, including a major surgery last
week. She wrote this evening to say that
she given notice at her job, decided pursue a new career, and will be seeking the Lord as
she takes several months to herself. She
said it was terrifying—and I’m sure it is—but I could not help but feel
incredibly proud of her tremendous courage.
After all, she is living the biblical example of how we ought to handle
mourning.
Over the past few weeks, the theme of II Samuel 12 has come
of repeatedly in my life. If you recall,
the child of David and Bathsheba had fallen ill:
Then David prayed to God for
the child and fasted. He would even go and spend the
night lying on the ground. The elders of his house stood over him and tried to
lift him from the ground, but he was unwilling, and refused to eat food with
them.
On the seventh day the child died . . . David
got up from the ground, bathed, put on oil, and changed his clothes. He went to
the house of the Lord and worshiped. Then, when he entered his palace, he
requested that food be brought to him, and he ate.
His servants said to him, “What is this
that you have done? While the child was still alive, you fasted and
wept. Once the child was dead you got up and ate food!” He replied, “While the
child was still alive, I fasted and wept because I thought, ‘Perhaps
the Lord will show pity and the child will live.' But now he is dead. Why
should I fast? Am I able to bring him back? I will go to him, but he cannot
return to me!’”
David, the man after God’s own heart, shows us here what the
writer of Ecclesiastes (and Kevin Bacon as Ren McCormack) also remind us—that
there is “a time to mourn and a time to dance.”
Of course there is to be a period of prayer and grief in any difficult
situation. But there is also a point
when we ought to make ourselves get up, wash our faces, and worship the
Lord. In other words, we are to take
action. I think it is an important
reminder to all of, wherever we are whatever we are facing, to not allow
ourselves to be controlled by that which we cannot change but, instead, to make
the most of what remains before us.
No comments:
Post a Comment