“When God takes something from your grasp, He is not punishing you. He is merely opening your hands to receive something better.”
You know what? Sometimes, life is good! And not only is it good, sometimes life is absolutely phenomenal! There you are, skipping through fields of flowers with a ginormous grin on your face, a huge mug of Starbuck’s in your hands, and “Don’t Worry – Be Happy!” playing in the distance… and just like a scene from Happy Gilmore, you are in your Happy Place. But what is that sound? Thunder? No… But it does cause you to stop and gaze at the landscape as it changes in the blink of en eye. Suddenly, those aren’t flowers, but you are in a field of poison ivy, holding a cup of sour milk, listening to “Lonesome Loser” just as the Mack truck mows you over.
Sound familiar? I believe we have all been there, done that. We have all been in those super wonderful places in our lives where we think everything is grand, everything is perfect, and nothing can touch us. We are invincible! And then something happens, and all at once you find yourself flat on your back as the rug gets pulled out from under you. For some of us, it may be a career that is destroyed; for others, a marriage or long-term relationship comes to an end; and even for others it could involve long-term illness, addictions, or any combination of factors. All in all, we never seem to be fully prepared when the bad happens.
The first question we typically ask is, “Why me?” We get anxious. We get depressed. We get angry. We get angry at God. We doubt God. And none of these things are bad things – they’re NORMAL things. They’re human reactions. And, in our humanity, we can’t see the purpose in change, suffering, or tragedy. Sometimes we can’t understand that through change – through suffering – we become better people. We become stronger people. We become more tolerant people. But our God is mighty, and even when you doubt Him, even when you stand and shake your fist at Him, He still loves you, He still provides for you, and like the loving parent He is, He tolerates your temper and still welcomes you back when the storm has settled.
You see, God doesn’t take “things” or people or careers or lifestyles away from you to harm you. Sometimes in life, other people make those choices for us, and since God has given us all the freedom to choose, sometimes people make the wrong decisions that negatively affect us. I believe in those cases, God blesses us eventually with something better if we continue to be faithful to Him. Other times, God is merely taking away something that is not necessarily the best that life has to offer and exchanging it for something that is far better than we can possibly imagine. But with our limited human vision, we can’t see the forest because we get stuck focusing on that one little tree.
We are told in Jeremiah 51:46, “Do not lose heart or be afraid…” That is a very difficult thing to do most days, isn’t it? What God the Father wants us to know here, however, is that above everything, He is here. He wants to do good things for us. He wants to give us better things, just as any good parent wants to provide good things for their child. Yet sometimes we get in our own way, don’t we? When we think about this phrase, “When God takes something from your grasp, He is not punishing you. He is merely opening your hands to receive something better.”; I always like to add, “…the real difficulty is allowing your hands to be opened.” Don’t just stand there with your hands balled tightly into fists, expecting things to get better; in order to receive the blessings that God has intended just for you, all you have to do is simply open your hands and He will be there waiting with open arms.
Open them.
Catch you on the flip side,
Ang
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