“But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.” ~Romans 8:25 (NRSV).
Have you ever had one of those times when you felt God whisper to you in your disappointment, “Don’t worry, I’ve got something better in mind for you,” and believed it?
Well, we shouldn’t make a practice of doubting this sort of ‘Word’ from God. But, sometimes in our biggest disappointments God’s somewhere in the background of it all saying this very thing. “Don’t worry, you’ll see!” will perhaps be the broad message as we’re advised to enfold faith around our circumstances.
God’s Leading Us There
Of those challenges we fail against, those ones we’ve not been prepared for, or those that are currently beyond us, have we ever thought that God’s exposing us to these to take us beyond where we think we can currently get to?
It’s an absorbing question.
Many believers will think that God’s not putting them up against challenges in life that are too much for them. Could it be, however, that the nature of this God-willed life, as it’s revealed to us day by day, is to coax us to new heights and new endeavours?
It’s threateningly new.
It’s okay to fail.
Indeed, it’s a revelation to fail and to come to a sudden realisation that we’ve survived it. We brush ourselves off from our fall in the dirt and we inspect for scrapes and worse. Yet, apart from a hurting heart — which we can soothe with the gentle, logical mind — we’ve come out of it basically unscathed and, additionally, we’ve actually learnt something.
A Vision Months, Years and Decades Away
Most people reading this have years to live, even possibly multiple decades. Whether we like it or not, God’s plan for the totality of our lives means some things we covet now we will not attain yet, or perhaps ever.
There are things also that God has in mind for us, but we’ll have absolutely no conception of them. And we’re not supposed to.
If we really believe we’ve heard from God, that call to our hearts, the passion that’s inherent in just who we are and who we’re becoming, then it’s incumbent on us to carry through with this vision indefinitely — even to the point of never losing hope.
The Occasional Disappointment
Being let down every now and again is normal in life. The amount of times we see these disappointments as blessings-in-disguise is rare, however.
But, perhaps that’s our challenge — to see more potential for the bigger, brassier handled doors that are opening to us in the midst of those that are slammed shut against our faces.
If we cannot yet see what we hope for, faith’s required. God has a plan. Believe.
© 2011 S. J. Wickham.
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