The Lowly Lifted Up
Today a friend of mine informed me that he had received yet another rejection letter from one of the PhD schools he applied to, and he shared with me the frustration of waiting to find out from the others. What will his future be? He wants to know now. He wants to know where he’s going to be studying or working and that he will indeed be offered a place to study or work.
I appreciate it so much when friends (or even random people I hardly know) share their frustrations with me. I consider it a privilege and I take it as a compliment that they view me as someone who actually cares. [Whoa, change in direction for this post… I wonder if that insight into my own heart might in some way reflect God’s. He too appreciates it when we share our frustrations with him and when we trust that he cares for us. Hmm…]
I know being rejected is hard, especially from three different schools. But a comforting thing I just read as I was sitting on the front porch amid the warm ambient light of the setting sun is that Jesus too experienced rejection:
And the hard thing about rejection is not only that it hurts, but that that pain is coupled with a strong temptation to lose trust in God. Surely Jesus understands this temptation, a temptation which in my opinion is at the root of all temptations: do we trust God and his ways or ourselves and our own? But he did manage to trust in God. His life and death are in fact the paradigm of what it means to give oneself over to God in trust. “He entrusted himself to him who judges justly (1 Peter 2:23)." Even unto death he trusted that God would ultimately vindicate him. And three days later, God came through. Therefore:
But trusting is hard. Waiting is hard.
I attend Minter Lane Church of Christ, where our preacher, Danny Mercer, has just begun a series on the Exodus. Yesterday’s message was on this very topic: trusting and waiting. When Moses first approached Pharaoh, telling him to let God’s people go, Pharaoh said, “Hmm, let me think about that. Um, NO!” But this wasn’t the worst of it, the Israelite people weren’t very happy with Moses: you wouldn’t be either if some nobody from out in the desert came into town getting you all excited about being freed, and then instead of freedom you got a ridiculously heavy workload. No, things weren’t looking good for Moses, but the process of the Exodus had just begun, God had only begun to show his wonders. The exodus was a long way from over and the promised land a long way off, but, as we learned yesterday morning, the humble who wait on and trust in the Lord will be lifted up.
This message of hope is beautifully depicted in a clip Danny showed yesterday morning. If you haven’t seen it, you simply have to! Visit CBS News’ website to view a clip about an autistic teen’s hoops dreams that finally came true.
This struggle to trust God is at the center of the life of faith. I know it is at the center of mine!
God, trusting is hard, waiting is hard. Give us mercy and grace to help us in our time of need.
I appreciate it so much when friends (or even random people I hardly know) share their frustrations with me. I consider it a privilege and I take it as a compliment that they view me as someone who actually cares. [Whoa, change in direction for this post… I wonder if that insight into my own heart might in some way reflect God’s. He too appreciates it when we share our frustrations with him and when we trust that he cares for us. Hmm…]
I know being rejected is hard, especially from three different schools. But a comforting thing I just read as I was sitting on the front porch amid the warm ambient light of the setting sun is that Jesus too experienced rejection:
Jesus life was defined by rejection. His neighbors laughed at him, his family questioned his sanity, his closest friends betrayed him, and his countrymen traded his life for that of a terrorist. (Yancey, The Jesus I Never Knew, 158)
He was despised and rejected by others, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem. (Isaiah 53:3)
And the hard thing about rejection is not only that it hurts, but that that pain is coupled with a strong temptation to lose trust in God. Surely Jesus understands this temptation, a temptation which in my opinion is at the root of all temptations: do we trust God and his ways or ourselves and our own? But he did manage to trust in God. His life and death are in fact the paradigm of what it means to give oneself over to God in trust. “He entrusted himself to him who judges justly (1 Peter 2:23)." Even unto death he trusted that God would ultimately vindicate him. And three days later, God came through. Therefore:
…[W]e do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. Let us then approach God's throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. (Hebrews 4:15-16)
But trusting is hard. Waiting is hard.
I attend Minter Lane Church of Christ, where our preacher, Danny Mercer, has just begun a series on the Exodus. Yesterday’s message was on this very topic: trusting and waiting. When Moses first approached Pharaoh, telling him to let God’s people go, Pharaoh said, “Hmm, let me think about that. Um, NO!” But this wasn’t the worst of it, the Israelite people weren’t very happy with Moses: you wouldn’t be either if some nobody from out in the desert came into town getting you all excited about being freed, and then instead of freedom you got a ridiculously heavy workload. No, things weren’t looking good for Moses, but the process of the Exodus had just begun, God had only begun to show his wonders. The exodus was a long way from over and the promised land a long way off, but, as we learned yesterday morning, the humble who wait on and trust in the Lord will be lifted up.
This message of hope is beautifully depicted in a clip Danny showed yesterday morning. If you haven’t seen it, you simply have to! Visit CBS News’ website to view a clip about an autistic teen’s hoops dreams that finally came true.
Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord. (Psalm 27:14)
I wait for the LORD, my whole being waits, and in his word I put my hope. I wait for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning, more than watchmen wait for the morning.
Israel, put your hope in the LORD, for with the LORD is unfailing love and with him is full redemption. (Psalm 130:5-7)
Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up. (James 4:10)
This struggle to trust God is at the center of the life of faith. I know it is at the center of mine!
God, trusting is hard, waiting is hard. Give us mercy and grace to help us in our time of need.
posted by mitch | 8:23 PM
3 Comments:
Thanks, Mitch! God just used you to remind me of something I needed to hear. I've been having a tough time dealing with a friend of mine who is really struggling with coming to faith. A couple of us girls have been working with her for months. There are all sorts of issues involved... Sometimes it seems like we're making progress, sometimes it seems like we're right back where we started. I was just praying a minute ago, with a lot of frustration and bewilderment about where to go next, and God used your words to remind me to trust. This isn't exactly a case of rejection, but the verses definitely apply. So, thanks. Please keep me in your prayers as I keep trying to let God use me in this girl's life.
Beautifully put. Trusting and waiting in God is something that just doesn't fit with my schedule sometimes. Sometimes I feel as if trusting and waiting in him is just like making bricks without straw - it makes the things I have to get done more difficult...ironic. Thanks for the reminder.
~JK
A good and insightful post Mitch. Thanks for your prayers.
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