Literally, within minutes of writing my last post How to Live in Limbo with a Smile, I, unexpectedly found myself thrust into a limbo of my own. I discovered that I (and you, too) were, in essence, locked out of this blog because of a “fatal error.”
I don’t know about you, but for me, anything that carries the notation “fatal error” strikes a little fear in my heart—especially when it’s something I’ve been working so diligently on for the past three months. I seriously, had thought to myself just that very morning, that things were finally looking finished enough to really ramp up my efforts to get the word out about the site. And then . . . the unthinkable happened.
I popped on my blog host’s help line thinking that in ten or fifteen minutes the problem would be solved. Two hours later, we were no closer than when we started. The rep began to wonder if the site had been “compromised” (ie: hacked) and decided to send it to the security department for their scrutiny and told me I’d hear back “soon.”
Well, “Soon” wasn’t that day . . . or the next day . . . or Wednesday . . . or Thursday . . or Friday, the day I sent an e-mail requesting a status update, which I never received, and it wasn’t Saturday or Sunday. “Soon” wasn’t even Monday morning, a full week after I originally connected with them. During that long and anxious week my emotions went crazy. Waves of “what-ifs” churned in my head. There were even a few moments when I considered just giving up on the whole thing.
The Bible says “In this world you will have trouble.” (John 16:33) We get that. We pray. We’re full of faith, and most of the challenges we face slide on by with only minor emotional bumps and bruises. There are other times, however, when problems come . . . and linger. They seem never-ending. The money you need doesn’t come in in time; an illness is slow to get better, or may even get worse; your husband slips back into old habits. What do we do with that?
Sometimes we begin to wonder. We wonder if God is ignoring us. We wonder if our problems are because there is sin in our lives. We wonder if our faith is just too weak. It’s rarely any of these.
This faith walk can be difficult. We can’t see the situation from God’s perspective. There is no visual evidence that he’s even working on our behalf. We don’t understand the purpose of the delays. When things take longer than we have decided they should . . . we get scared. Our humanness takes over.
God promises that he will never leave us or forsake us. He promises he will provide for us. He tells us his yoke is easy. But when our problems are slow to resolve, we tend to forget all those things. Our faith grows flimsy and our fears and doubts escalate.
We seldom remember all the times God so wonderfully provided for us in the past. We forget the joy and the peace we experienced when we realized that he really had been working all along, just outside our view.
God was faithful then and . . . He is faithful now, no matter how bleak our situation seems at this moment.
Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. — John 14:27
TODAY’S CHAT: Take a minute to think about some of the times God has “come through for you” in extended times of trouble. Please consider sharing one of them below to encourage all of our hearts.
Image courtesy of Witthaya Phonsawat at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
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