March 26: A Considerate Slap in the Face

Maybe you’ve known this sort of thing for years; taught it in Sunday school; learned it your first year of being one of God’s children. I just realized it in last Fall. One bright morning, I woke and began my morning routine in typical fashion. I kept industrious pace; I made coffee. As the day began to gear up, though, I couldn’t shake a mounting anxiety about something in my life. It was some recurring worry which, though I might lose it through busyness or remembering why I had no reason for concern, it never seemed to weary of the pursuit and would rise with the sun each day, seemingly better rested than I.

That revelational morning, I asked the Lord for help; for wisdom in the upcoming situation; for sanity. I expected a reminder of calming truths or a peace which would prevail on my day’s outlook. Instead what I got was conviction for lack of humility. I would have laughed if only I weren’t so shocked. When I expected a reassuring hand on the shoulder, I got one across the jaw.

Conviction properly set in because I was not trusting God. Sometimes we forget this is a part of worry when it overtakes us but, when we look back, we see how ridiculous we looked when we thought that God needed our help in a situation or that He might be unaware of what was going on in His universe (cf. Job 38-42). We can’t see that He runs this place, but what we also are missing is how much He loves us. Remember the cross? Remember the blessings which shower you every day? Remember the community into which He has adopted you? Remember that He has forgiven you of the sin which defined you?

Perhaps when you read the description of conviction as an open hand across the cheek, it seemed a little harsh. Perhaps it sounded like the sort of thing which would follow an exclamation, “You ingrate! After all I’ve done for you! You should be ashamed!” I don’t think conviction is like that (though it rightly could be). Instead, it’s more like waking someone back to sanity from a nightmarish world; one in which God isn’t controlling everything and all things don’t work out for the good of those who love Him. In anxiety, we sometimes have to be shaken back to reality before it helps us; we have to remember His grandeur before it brings us any comfort. Sometimes subtle and gentle things restore us to a right view; other times it takes a shock. Whatever it takes, I’m always glad to be back home.

Thank God for rude awakenings.

Putting it to Paper:

Consider a past situation that caused you worry and no longer does. Go back a couple of years. Think on your worries and how you would have changed things in that situation if God had dropped everything in your lap to rule for a moment. What would you have done?

Now think about how that situation was resolved. Did the situation resolve just as you hoped? In the way and time? How can you see God at work in the way it was resolved?