With each change or minor bump in the radar I could feel God nudging my heart as if to say, "whatchya waiting on, girl?" and, like I often do (I am terribly ashamed to write this out) I turned my ear away from the nudge, I insisted I would make the time another day, I blatantly ignored His supreme suggestions. And then, like He must often do with such a stubborn, hard headed child such as myself, He had to start chucking baseballs at my head, He had to start swinging and hitting His aim, (read my heart) and He had to start raising His voice a little. Let me just say this, ahem, I never claimed to be an easy person. NEVER.
This past weekend He really pulled out all the stops, brought out the big guns, took aim, and hit directly, in the center of my heart. It hurt, bad, and I am broken; I am deeply wounded and confused and struggling and I am thankful.
You see, I met a boy . . . and isn't that how it always starts?
I met a boy and I opened up and laid it all out and I even started to let myself think this might turn into something - like something real for the first time in about 3 years. And in the process of daydreaming about no longer having to date and worry and fret I lost sight of Him. I forgot about the promises I'd made to my heart and my spirit and my Father; I left far, far, far behind me the prayers I whispered and wrote about wanting a man to push me into my faith, not out of it.
So there I was, deep in the throes of liking this man and forgetting about THE man, and I was shoved face first into the muckiness of being cheated on, lied to, and belittled. I won't go into the details - mostly because I don't need to - you all know what it's like to hurt, right? This is the most hurt I think I've ever hurt over a man, ever. So I took that hurt and I allowed it to feed into being supremely pissed - at myself for believing what he was saying to me, at myself for losing sight and allowing myself to be manipulated, and at God for creating a situation in which I was let down, again.
Suggestions of getting in my Bible and praying were gently lobbed at me by friends and family, but I knew better; I wasn't going to pray, I was going to stay angry; I wasn't going to be in my Bible, I was going to get on Pinterest. That'll show Him, I thought.
What did I pin, you ask? Well, these were the first three pins I saw - and that was that.
I am fairly certain that the Bible left out one key message in the Creation story; it probably went something like this:
And on the seventh day, while He was resting, He laughed. Hard.
Who, exactly, do we think we are, guys? PINTEREST?! I was going to shove it to my Father by getting on Pinterest instead of getting on my Bible. Who had the last word? I assure you it's never me, in these sorts of situations.
In this day and age of Facebook and Twitter and Pinterest it has occurred to me that so many people, myself included, look to their social media devices as their God, as their religion, instead of opening up the good book and listening with an open heart.
Last Friday I attended a night of prayer with two of the most incredible people I've ever met and one section of the prayer was to ask for perseverance; the Pastor stood before us and said he wanted to remind us that we should be prepared because when we ask for perseverance we will likely be handed tribulation in order to get to the perseverance. I heard those words on Friday night, I prayed for perseverance in His sight on that same night, too. And on Saturday morning I was met with a swift test, I was met with my tribulation.
I'm persevering. I am in the midst of perseverance.
No comments:
Post a Comment