Dear Friends:
I hope that you have been able to reach back in your memories to find how you can recall God’s goodness in your life! Sometimes this is more difficult for some than others. It makes me think of the Highlights magazine my kids used to get when they were young. There was always a “hidden pictures” page where you were supposed to find the cleverly placed objects within the theme of the pictures. Or some of you might relate to the “Where’s Waldo?” trend several years ago. With either of these, finding the object of interest could at times be easier, and sometimes it was much more difficult to find. In my own life, when I have been practicing gratitude and not taking things for granted, my eyes are wide open to seeing the amazing things God has done for me!
In this blog, I want to introduce you to the second building block in Building the Foundation to Embracing Uncertainty. I want to start by telling you about my own journey in my relationship with God and how it was transformed through a huge change in perspective.
I was taught that the only way into Heaven was by doing the right things and by earning God’s love. On any given day, depending on how good or bad I had been, I might be headed for Heaven or I might be headed for Hell. It was like being in the swirl of a revolving door and my destination depended on which way the door threw me out of its spin. The problem with all of this was that I missed the big point! I didn’t connect with God in relationship at all…I was too wrapped up in legalism (doing all the right stuff) to even pay attention to the Almighty’s love and care for me.
Legalism can never bring relationship and connection. I use the illustration of driving. If you are driving down the road and look in your rearview mirror to see an officer of the law behind you (no lights, just following you), what do you experience? Most people say that their heart starts beating faster and that they check to make sure they aren’t speeding. And when are you most relieved? Most people say they are relieved when the police officer turns off the road or pursues someone else. In this illustration, people tend not to want to be in “relationship” or get attention from an officer because the job of the police is not to point out what you have down well, but to make sure you have a deterrent for breaking the law. The same is true in our relationship with God. If it’s only about following all the rules in a perfect manner, we will just worry about God catching our infractions and punishing us. We won’t want to be close and God’s incredible love, mercy, and grace will be lost in our hiding from Him.
I have begun to picture it more like learning to dance. As His daughter, I am looking to my Heavenly Father to teach me how to dance. Not only do I look to Him for this guidance, but I also need to participate with Him as He leads. It’s like being a little girl standing on the feet of my Heavenly Father; He is doing the movements to take me through the circumstances of life but I am traveling with Him in close relationship with Him step by step. I trust God because I can recall how He has seen me through my life circumstances. And I am participating because I believe in my ability to learn to dance, to cope with life not only because of God’s care for me but in my own ability to do the work of following His lead.* This brings us to the second block of Building the Foundation:
I know that in my own journey through life, with all the difficult things I have been through, I have found that all of my worry and lack of belief in myself has proven a waste of energy. History tells me that I will figure out a way. When I focus on being distraught over uncertainty rather than Recalling God’s Goodness and believing in my ability to cope, I waste my energy in vain instead of bending my being, swaying in relationship to my Heavenly Father’s lead and my follow. In the Intolerance of Uncertainty you and I stumble alone through our trials, but in this dance, as an exchange to trying to make the uncertain certain, we can experience a connection, love, and care that equips us to experience joy in the midst of the unknown!
Here are some questions for you to process in learning how to add Believing in Your Ability to Cope to Recalling God’s Goodness:
What are some difficult things you have been through?
Before you knew what the outcome would be what did you worry about? Over what did you want control? Did you respond with the Action side of IU or the Inaction side?
Are there things you can look back at and see how God led you or moved on your behalf?
What were you able to do to cope? How did you participate with God in His lead?
Do you have stories of how difficult times drew you closer to God? Although you may not want to relive these times, are you now grateful because of how it brought you a closer relationship with God (I know for some this is too much of a stretch, but to begin to look at it this way is very freeing!)?
Psalm 30:11 “You turned my wailing into dancing…..”
Blessings to you in your journey toward freedom,
Shari
*The picture above is a picture of my good friend Kim’s granddaughter as she sweetly embraces her daddy. This man is an officer of the law and I find it interesting that the most important part of this little girl’s relationship with her dad is not about him being a enforcer of the law but it is in her understanding that he is her loving and safe dad. In that, she draws close and is able to receive and experience his love…..I think this is such a beautiful illustration of what I am talking about!