US columnist CAROL ROUND, in an article first published on ASSIST News Service, writes about relying on God in hard times…
Grove, Okalhoma, US
Via ASSIST News Service
PICTURE: Heike Mintel/Unsplash
“You make known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand” – Psalms 16:11 (NIV).
A family in our church has had their life upended by an unexpected health issue affecting their youngest son. The health issue is rare, and most don’t survive. Colton has. However, it has left him and his family struggling to overcome the obstacles along the path of recovery.
Because I attend a large church with two campuses, I don’t personally know this family. But we’ve connected on social media, and I follow their updates as they share Colton’s journey of recovery, including physical and speech therapy. The youngster is a fighter, and his parents are fighting along with him so he can hopefully return to a normal life someday.
“We yearn for a quieter, safer life. A path not filled with detours or roadblocks. We want to travel a path without resistance. A path of our choosing. But that isn’t part of God’s plan. We lead imperfect, unfinished lives. Without the detours and the roadblocks, would we even rely on God?”
Reading about the struggles they face each day and how this young family’s faith in God keeps them going, I continue to pray daily for them. I can’t imagine the impact this has had on their family, including Colton’s twin sister and an older brother.
Life isn’t a straight journey from A to B. There are detours along the way. The unexpected leads us in different directions. Roadblocks can bring our planned path to an abrupt halt.
We yearn for a quieter, safer life. A path not filled with detours or roadblocks. We want to travel a path without resistance. A path of our choosing.
But that isn’t part of God’s plan. We lead imperfect, unfinished lives. Without the detours and the roadblocks, would we even rely on God?
British writer and lay theologian CS Lewis once said: “The thing is to rely on God. The time will come when you regard all this misery as a small price to pay for having been brought to that dependence. Meanwhile, the trouble is that relying on God has to begin all over again every day as if nothing has yet been done.”
A recent social media post by Colton’s father was enlightening. He wrote, “Sehnsucht (a German expression) is the yearning for something you can’t articulate or explain. I’ve experienced this emotion like clockwork throughout my life. I have a family I adore, a career I love and much hope for the future, and yet the yearning still haunts me.”
Continuing, he wrote, “It comes on fast like a Spring thunderstorm, yet it dissipates gradually; like how the heat of summer slowly gives way to fall. It isn’t a desire for possessions or status. Money is cheap and reputation is fleeting. No, it’s a longing much deeper.”
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Possessions and fame cannot satisfy. That’s why we’re always searching. Searching for significance in a broken world. We need God. He is the only One who can satisfy and fill the hunger in our souls and heart.
In Psalms 42:2, David wrote: “My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?”
When we quench our thirst with the Living Water, we find joy in His presence, comfort in the unknown of our trials, and peace in the promise of an eternal future with Him. Like the psalmist, we can pray, “One thing I ask of the Lord, that is what I seek, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life” (Psalm 27:4).
