YOU ASKED WHAT?!
When did questions become taboo?
There was a period of nine months that I was unemployed, before that, I was just as equally broke. No, really, I worked for a missions organization, and as such had to raise my own support. For 21 months I lived with nothing. I don't know how I lived, I don't know how I ate, I don't know how I did anything. I do know that I found myself very deeply in debt. I am just now starting to eek out from underneath the load. I felt abandoned by God. I felt very alone. Sure there were days I could catch a glimpse of how God was working. Someone randomly gave me twenty dollars, or a freelance project came in. But for the most part, I felt like I was always 30 minutes away from my demise. That puts a lot of strain on you.
I now have a great job, that pays decently. But I find myself still living with a mentality of scarecity. There is something to be said for being frugal, but I think I'm past frugal, and often am living like I still have nothing. Sure, bills are bigger now, and I'm digging out from under debt. (by the way, my biggest red mark, is fully paid off, and is now black! I still have a little more to pay off but I can see the end!) But I have found, that even though I was delivered from that painful season of life, I have still been living as though it were a current reality.
I have been living today by yesterday's rules. And in many ways I have found myself still trapped. I have been taking baby steps to get out of this mentality. Like taking a starbucks run! (:D) I am also beginning to save up for some "big" purchases. Like... a house!
So, what I am getting at? What's the point?!
Just this, lately, I have heard questions popping up left and right. Friends, acquaintences, and perfect strangers all asking the same thing: "Where is God?! Why isn't God here, helping me out of my circumstances? Why would God lead me to a place where I would face such circumstances? Why would God abandon me?" And collectively I hear the church rise up, but not to comfort, but to squelch! What are we so scared of? Honestly, Church, what's the big deal? Have we forgotten our own questions? Have we forgotten our own journey? Have we forgotten that even Jesus asked, "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?!"
God often takes us into circumstances where we can't see where God is. The purpose of these times is to drive us closer to God, to cause us to seek God's face. But the feeling of abandonment can be severe, and can cause us to do just the opposite, to shy away. The question for us as believers is, how will we choose to respond to those who are shying away? We have a command that we have been given, "Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn." - Romans 12:15
The simple answer is this...We do not have to answer the questions that are being asked, in fact, it may be a detriment for us to do so. These questions are the very ones that must be answered deep in each person's own spirit. The answer has to be found, it cannot be provided. Our task is not to tell those who question what they should believe, ours is to join with them into the pain of the moment, and mourn.
And those of us who have experienced the pain of abandonment, we cannot forget those defining moments. Now we know that God never left us, and God never forsook us, but we didn't always know. We had to find that out for ourselves. It had to be revealed to our hearts. We must join with them, remembering our own scars, and mourn with them. Then, when the question is answered we will have the right to rejoice with them.
Those questioners are our friends, our brothers, our sisters, our spouses, our parents, our children, they are not some distant "them." They are not the outcasts, they are the wounded, the ones weakened by the onslaught of life. Let us rise up, Church, to embrace, and not answer. Let us remember that we were once in the same place. Let us throw off the shameful shroud of taboo, and in the profound words of the songwriter "Shower the people you love with love."
There was a period of nine months that I was unemployed, before that, I was just as equally broke. No, really, I worked for a missions organization, and as such had to raise my own support. For 21 months I lived with nothing. I don't know how I lived, I don't know how I ate, I don't know how I did anything. I do know that I found myself very deeply in debt. I am just now starting to eek out from underneath the load. I felt abandoned by God. I felt very alone. Sure there were days I could catch a glimpse of how God was working. Someone randomly gave me twenty dollars, or a freelance project came in. But for the most part, I felt like I was always 30 minutes away from my demise. That puts a lot of strain on you.
I now have a great job, that pays decently. But I find myself still living with a mentality of scarecity. There is something to be said for being frugal, but I think I'm past frugal, and often am living like I still have nothing. Sure, bills are bigger now, and I'm digging out from under debt. (by the way, my biggest red mark, is fully paid off, and is now black! I still have a little more to pay off but I can see the end!) But I have found, that even though I was delivered from that painful season of life, I have still been living as though it were a current reality.
I have been living today by yesterday's rules. And in many ways I have found myself still trapped. I have been taking baby steps to get out of this mentality. Like taking a starbucks run! (:D) I am also beginning to save up for some "big" purchases. Like... a house!
So, what I am getting at? What's the point?!
Just this, lately, I have heard questions popping up left and right. Friends, acquaintences, and perfect strangers all asking the same thing: "Where is God?! Why isn't God here, helping me out of my circumstances? Why would God lead me to a place where I would face such circumstances? Why would God abandon me?" And collectively I hear the church rise up, but not to comfort, but to squelch! What are we so scared of? Honestly, Church, what's the big deal? Have we forgotten our own questions? Have we forgotten our own journey? Have we forgotten that even Jesus asked, "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?!"
God often takes us into circumstances where we can't see where God is. The purpose of these times is to drive us closer to God, to cause us to seek God's face. But the feeling of abandonment can be severe, and can cause us to do just the opposite, to shy away. The question for us as believers is, how will we choose to respond to those who are shying away? We have a command that we have been given, "Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn." - Romans 12:15
The simple answer is this...We do not have to answer the questions that are being asked, in fact, it may be a detriment for us to do so. These questions are the very ones that must be answered deep in each person's own spirit. The answer has to be found, it cannot be provided. Our task is not to tell those who question what they should believe, ours is to join with them into the pain of the moment, and mourn.
And those of us who have experienced the pain of abandonment, we cannot forget those defining moments. Now we know that God never left us, and God never forsook us, but we didn't always know. We had to find that out for ourselves. It had to be revealed to our hearts. We must join with them, remembering our own scars, and mourn with them. Then, when the question is answered we will have the right to rejoice with them.
Those questioners are our friends, our brothers, our sisters, our spouses, our parents, our children, they are not some distant "them." They are not the outcasts, they are the wounded, the ones weakened by the onslaught of life. Let us rise up, Church, to embrace, and not answer. Let us remember that we were once in the same place. Let us throw off the shameful shroud of taboo, and in the profound words of the songwriter "Shower the people you love with love."
Labels: Rant
posted by Timothy Putnam at 5:29 PM
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