Monday Morning Memo: The One

Today, January 15^th, 2018, is my mom’s 92^nd birthday.  Oh how I wish we could celebrate together.  I would love to serve her cake and ice cream topped with LOTS of homemade hot fudge (nothing was ever too sweet for her!).  But I’m confident the party she is having is so much better than anything I could ever imagine.  The reason is that when my mom was 83, her precious Jesus called her home.

If you’ve read my latest devotional book, you know that my mom suffered for the last ten years of her life.  She had Alzheimer’s and I’ve often told people that we lost her one-inch at a time.  There were many times during the last two years of her life, that I would leave her room in nursing care, shaking my head and wondering why in the world her Jesus wasn’t taking her home.  It wasn’t that I didn’t want to have her here on this earth with us; I just didn’t want her to suffer anymore.  But then of course when she did enter the heavenly gates on August 15^th, 2009, a part of me wondered why her Jesus had to call her home so soon.

Sometimes life just doesn’t make sense, does it?  Why do good people have to suffer?  Why do some people, who take care of their bodies, develop something like Alzheimer’s while others who abuse their bodies live a full life?  Why are there good people who work so hard to make a good, honest living, but still struggle to pay their bills…while others who lie and cheat to move up the corporate ladder seem to have everything this world has to offer?  Why are some born into a world where there is unbelievable poverty with not enough food to eat, clean water to drink, or even a roof over their head and have never even heard the name of Jesus?  All while I was born into a Christian home, with plenty of food and water, a warm, soft bed to get into every night, and the opportunity to hear about my Jesus on a daily basis.  Yes, sometimes life doesn’t make sense, does it?

You may not understand this, but I often have preconceived ideas or plans on how things should happen.  Not plans just for me, but I go to the extent of having plans figured out for my husband, my children, my friends, etc.  I’m sure that I know what is best for me and everyone else and so I just need my Jesus to be my “genie” and make it all happen (in my timing of course!). 

Problems arise then when He doesn’t “pull out of the bottle” what I think He should…when I think He should.  I can become frustrated, discouraged and sometimes even angry with my Jesus because He just must not understand exactly what my plans are for every detail of my life and the lives of those around me.  Because if He did, He surely would cater to my every whim…wouldn’t He?

As I’ve thought about this a lot recently, I’ve come to the conclusion that we have become spoiled because we live in an “instant” society.  We want everything right now and we don’t want to wait for anything.  We want a microwave to cook our food quicker…the fastest computer to surf the Web…the fastest new cell phone to send those all important texts…we want complete healing NOW from a surgery so that we don’t have to deal with pain anymore (ok, you knew I had to throw that one in!)…we want anything that will fulfill our desires…faster.  So when a wrench is thrown into our plans and we find ourselves with an unexpected health issue, or the loss of our job, or a spouse who wants to walk away or a child who chooses the wrong path…life can very quickly not make sense.

So what do we do when life isn’t what we bargained for?  We trust.  Not in ourselves, or our family, or our employer, or our all-important tech giant.  We trust in the One who created us.  The One who knows the number of hairs on our head.  The One who loves us more than we can even imagine.  The One who loves our spouse, our children, our friends…even more than we do.  The One who was nailed to a tree, so that we could spend eternity with Him.  The One whose plan for us is perfect, even if it doesn’t make sense to us.  The One who is our Jesus.

I’ve heard it said that when our prayers aren’t answered when or how we want them to be, Jesus must have a far better answer that will be greater than we could ever imagine.  I had this happen to me recently.  I had been praying about something for a quite awhile and I kept telling Jesus that He really needed to hurry up to work out my plans.  But when He did finally answer in His perfect timing, His plans were really far superior to mine!

To trust means that we have our faith firmly planted in our Jesus and every day when we awake, we make the choice to trust Him and Him alone.  Trusting Him is not a one-time decision…it is an everyday decision.  When unexpected issues arise…we choose to trust Him instead of becoming frustrated, discouraged or angry.  If you are like me, you may have a ways to go to accomplish this every day.  But I think we need to remember that it is a process and we can be encouraged that with Him, the One who loves us so, all things are possible!

“Trust God from the bottom of your heart;
    don’t try to figure out everything on your own.
Listen for God’s voice in everything you do, everywhere you go;
    he’s the one who will keep you on track.
Don’t assume that you know it all.”

Proverbs 3:5-7a (The Message)