Writers In The Storm

I wish life were easy. I wish it for me. I wish it for my loved ones. I even wish it for my enemies. It might make them less hateful.

But it isn’t. The tough things in life have the deepest impact. Good. Bad. Either way.

It’s easy to sit back and observe the difficulty of another’s life picking and choosing what should stay or go. The effort isn’t mine. I won’t pay that cost. The fallout won’t settle on me.

In teaching my wonderful son about the bible, he is often dismayed at the behavior of people. It’s easy to judge Adam and Eve as foolish. The Hebrews as stiff-necked. The Sanhedrin as short-sighted. Judas as a traitor. These guys saw a bush burn, the sea part, and the dead get up and walk. Now me, I would have chosen to stay in the Garden of Eden. He only held back one little tree.

I have my own list of poor choices. Always made with the intent to make my life easier, in some way, and never in consultation with my Creator. Nobility, righteousness, grace were given little consideration in my processing. Consequently, my life became more difficult.

Ah, sweet irony.

Now that I try to live on God’s frequency-more righteous, more noble, more gracious, though I often fail miserably-decisions for myself are more clear. In my walk with Him, I have my own examples of bushes burning, seas parting, and my previously dead soul that now dances. I don’t want what he chooses to keep from me.

Now the hard thing, is less the decisions, but the enduring. The knowing that the world is fallen and won’t get fixed before He returns. It grieves me, but it also frees me to keep a heavenly perspective.

But there may be decisions-not passive, non-decisions-but hard, tough, difficult decisions that require nobility, righteousness, and grace in quantities I am ill-equipped to offer in the natural. I know He will be there with me. In His protections, with His love, and through His strength, I can do that hard thing for His glory, whatever my role may be.