Today’s Scripture Reading (July 11, 2016): Psalm 55
T. Scott MacLeod wrote that “You necessarily have to be lost, before you’re found.” The thought is basic, yet it is one that we too often miss. Maybe we are just afraid of admitting that we might be lost, afraid of the weakness that such a statement might imply. Sometimes we are confused. I admitted my confusion once and a saint of the church chastised me, informing me that confusion does not come from God. He was right of course, yet I read in the Bible of several people who seemed to have experienced confusion. As I walked away from my confrontation, instead of removing my confusion, I was simply left trying to find alternate words to describe what was going on inside of me. Sometimes, even as Christ followers we are confused, lost and depressed. We may not admit it for fear that some well-meaning person will chastise our weakness, but that doesn’t remove the truth from the situation.
I have experienced my share of dark nights of the soul. Times when I have felt lost. And I am somewhat comforted by the fact that I am not alone with these feelings. Even David apparently went through these times. Depression is not a sin. It is a reality of life. But such moments do present us with a challenge. Often they come with incredible opportunities for growth if we will only dare to walk down that road. If we are willing to admit that we are lost, then the possibility must exist that we might also be found.
David heard the words of his enemies. The challenge must have existed to just right off the comments as lies told by people who did not know. But the problem was that they were not all lies – and his current enemy was his son who knew more about Dad than most. And in the midst of all that was being said was some truth. And the challenge that David needed to accept as he struggled through his own dark night was not what to do with the lies. They would need to be left to fall away. The challenge was what was it that he needed to do with the truth?
It is the challenge that we have to rise to as well when we go through our own dark nights, those times when we lie awake in bed distraught by what our enemies are saying. In those moments it is not the lies that should bother us. It is the nuggets of truth that can be dug out of our situation that we need to deal with. In those nuggets of truth is the reason why we feel lost and confused in the first place, and the God solution to those nuggets of truth is our own path toward being found.
Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: 2 Samuel 18
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