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Day 29 - When the Bottom Falls Out

Sometimes it seems all we can feel is trouble.  All we sense is that “things can’t get worse”.  Job says “man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward.”  Suffering, trouble… physically, emotionally struggling to make sense of life – that is the human dilemma more often than we want to admit.

A Christian is a person who hates suffering, like all others, but understands that there is a place to go, a person to seek.

Psalm 130:1-8
1 Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD!
2  O Lord, hear my voice! Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my pleas for mercy!
3  If you, O LORD, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?
4  But with you there is forgiveness, that you may be feared.
5  I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in his word I hope;
6  my soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen for the morning, more than watchmen for the morning.
7  O Israel, hope in the LORD! For with the LORD there is steadfast love, and with him is plentiful redemption.
8  And he will redeem Israel from all his iniquities.

The pilgrim walk begins with confession, not denial.  He does not complain, he confesses – “Lord, I’m in deep trouble…mercy!” 
No one wants to see the depths….
No one wants to cry out for mercy…
But suffering is reality…it happens to all of us at some time and we need a way to understand where to go when it does.

Here’s the key:  the psalmist immerses his pain in God.
“The Son of God suffered unto death, not that men might not suffer, but that their sufferings might be like His.”
                                      - George MacDonald

Eight times the Psalmist says the name of the Lord. 
God enters into our pain, rather than ignore or leave us to endure it alone.  He is not a score keeper pointing an accusing finger saying, “you deserve this”.

The Pilgrim’s faith is directed, purposed, pointed.  Therefore, he says with faith, “I wait”.
The watchmen stood as lonely sentinels at the city walls, watching for invaders, or those who would sneak into the city to mischief or harm.  Their jobs were lonely, quiet, uneventful, and full of patient duty…but crucial.

I worked six summers of night shift work.  Working all night takes getting use to.  When the vast majority of people are rising up to go to work, you’re going home to go to bed.  It’s counterintuitive in every way.  Yet I used that time to do many things I normally wouldn’t do in the day time.  Around half way through those six years I came to faith in Christ and it changed the night times from drudgery to purpose.  The night times were fruitful.  It was quiet and I found it a time to read, pray, and think.

The watchmen served a valuable purpose…someone needs to be there for the rest. 
The waiting purposed person is necessary.
The waiting person who suffers is not fatalistic.  
We don’t put up with suffering, we don’t throw up our hands and say “whatever will be will be”…
No,
We say, “Lord you are our Hope”.
We say “Lord in You We Trust, and we will wait for you.”

Sometimes God’s answer is those brothers and sisters in Christ who come alongside to walk the journey with you.  They don’t come to preach or give false hope…they come to enter in and join you in waiting.


Peace

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