One day I will rest

The friends of Job get a bad rap, but listen to what one of them had to say:
"Yet if you devote your heart to him and stretch out your hands to him, if you put away the sin that is in your hand and allow no evil to dwell in your tent, then, free of fault, you will lift up your face; you will stand firm and without fear. You will surely forget your trouble recalling it only as waters gone by. Life will be brighter than noonday, and darkness will become like morning. You will be secure, because there is hope; you will look about you and take your rest in safety."

Truthfully this morning, this early dark morning, I pray these words into being. I'm journeying into land that is unknown, with the wind barely moving my sails.

So, it would be a little bit helpful to have someone at my back, someone I could count on, someone whom I trust.

Uh, look above. "You will surely forget your trouble recalling it only as waters gone by."

Jack Zavada writes this: The bottom line is that our wants may not agree with God's wants for us. After all, it's our life, isn't it? Shouldn't we have say over it? Should we be the one who calls the shot? God gave us free, will, didn't he?

Here's the problem. As Zavada says, if we fall for the world's idea of what matters, if we are drawn into believing what our mind is telling us instead of what God's will for us is, we get trapped in what he calls "the Loop of Next Time." The new car, the new relationship, the new promotion, the new church, the new congregation. All in our own minds. He says that whatever didn't bring you the happiness you expected, you keep searching for, thinking "maybe next time." But it's a loop that's always the same, because you were created for something better, and deep down you know it.

Here's the real deal, folks. Trusting in the Lord can require that you abandon everything you've ever believed about what brings happiness and fulfillment.

Trusting Him really, really demands that we accept the truth that God knows what's best for us.

I keep getting crushing body blows lately, blows that would knock Rocky down. But like that old boxer with the great hook, I keep getting back up -- woozy, of course. So, I keep plugging, keep pounding, keep plowing.

Why?

Because there is hope.
Because there is love.
Because there is faith.

Because one day, I truly believe, I will look about and take my rest in safety. Maybe not here. Certainly not now. But one day.

That has to be enough.