So I was out with my
sister, at a store she HAD to visit in one of the many lovely
shopping complexes that absolutely litter my part of town.
I was annoyed, yet
there I was.
After bearing the
selection process, the line, the awkward conversation with the
cashier, we were back in the parking lot.
“Now, where is the
car?”
I walked, as most
men do, by my God-given gift of instinct—in the wrong direction. In
fact, everywhere I walked in this parking lot WAS WRONG! I tried to
replay the memory tape in my head, re-visualize the walk to the
store—I was lost every time, rather, the car was lost.
And there was my
sister, who can be a bit of drama, especially during inconvenient
moments such as these.
What got to me most
about my situation—perhaps—was not being complained at or
walking, even though I started to feel New York in my legs all over.
What did it was that I SHOULD HAVE KNOWN where I was going, I should
have known, but I didn't. And every speed walk down another
hopelessly pointless lane, munched at my sense of pride.
For those that have
followed this blog, thank you first, but secondly, I hope to be
honest with you, because I think this might be therapeutic—my life
is that parking lot these days. I keep walking up and down, the same
aisles, it seems, with the same results: no rest, no answer. I want
someone to take it easy on me—GOD, PEOPLE—someone to make me
feel affirmed, but it doesn't always happen that way, does it?
Y'know, I think of
Moses these days, I mean, really think—how were those first 40
YEARS in the desert (on the run for murder) (Exodus 2)? I imagine
they weren't really comforting years. I don't remember reading about
any great revivals in the desert while Moses tended sheep. He didn't
even know what God wanted to do with him until he was 80!
And that's a truth
I'm finding out about God, yes God is loving and patient and kind,
but God is tough, and God will pull us through situations that will
not give us the option of ignoring them or sleeping through them.
They may very well hurt.
AND LET ME TELL YOU:
from the perspective of one who wonders if his faith is not just
leaking from him—it will take prayer just to pray, and faith to
have faith (if you don't know what I'm talkin' about now, you will).
You will have to preach to yourself and rely heavily on the Lord's
grace.
But back to the car
in the parking lot...
The one thing that
gave me hope in that 30 minute search, was that I had the keys in my
hand, and therefore, I knew I had a way home after that mess.
God holds the key to
your solution.
Remember that.
In Him,
Jean-Marc
Revelation 1:17-18:
“Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one. I died,
and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and
Hades.”