How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and every day have sorrow in my heart?
This week was full of losses. Material losses. Political losses. Health losses. Relational losses. Each and every one made my heart and mind ache for relief. I felt like yelling, “I give!” to God so that He’d put a stop to the pain (and the losses). I so wanted to do a rewind and replay for a different outcome in each of these areas. But as much as I desired different, even better more favorable results, I realized something. As much as these losses stung, there was something deeper amiss in my heart.
Every Heart Harbors Idols
A single word. Idols. From the loss of the election to some financial slippage to a recent relational tangle which made me feel heartsick (and body sick,) I realized that in every single one of these situations I had made an idol out of getting the results I wanted (craved?) Idols. As one theologian said, our hearts are idol factories. We manufacture one after another throughout our lives and each time we do, they come crumbling down and we look at the mess in grave disappointment because we were so hoping they’d come through for us in a way deeper level than they were ever intended to do so.
Hope In God Alone Never Disappoints
As much as I desired what I believed to be right and true and honorable results in my losses, I also had to admit after the fact, that it wasn’t just the multiplication of loss that was getting to me. It was the accompanying disappointment. In life. In myself. In God. I have to continually remind myself that life and losses go hand in hand throughout this broken world. No amount of hoping, wishing, or praying otherwise is going to change the fact that we all live in a dying world. But once we accept that truth, our losses make more sense and they don’t take us by surprise so much. Loss upon loss, we need to walk hand in hand with God through it all. And yes, it’s still going to hurt and sting like crazy.
God Will Draw Close In Our Loss
Losses come to us all. Sometimes those losses are our own fault. Other times we experience loss at the hands of others. Often, losses come by no fault of any person, it’s simply part and parcel of this damaged, sin-ridden world. But when the losses come, we have to be prepared. Each of has to know what we believe before the storms hit. Otherwise, we’ll tumble and fall deeper and faster and farther than if we’d been prepared on the inside of our hearts and minds.
How does one prepare for the inevitable without sounding like a naysayer? By becoming a student of the Bible and rightly understanding what God’s Word says about life on this planet. Scripture clearly teaches that we will have trouble but that we shouldn’t let it overcome us. Why? Because Jesus overcame the world. That’s the good news! The bad news is that we’re going to experience trouble, pain, and loss upon loss.
God’s Promises Are Faithful
Once we come to accept that struggle is part of life, every life, then we’re much more ready to respond to life’s difficulties and disappointments with a grace-laced answer. What does a grace-laced answer look like? One that speaks the promises of God’s provision aloud, out loud, by faith, and keeps on speaking out the truth that God said He would provide. Period. It’s true, we often don’t understand why these losses come to us, but we can bank on a single truth found in God’s Word through them all. Those who trust in the Lord will not be disappointed. He said it, we need to believe it before, during and after our losses.
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