Matthew 16:22-23

A couple of weeks ago I sat up late at night watching a sermon by a famous TV preacher. He was talking about how important it is for us to be happy and what we need to do to be happy. He said it was all about our attitude. He said, “Every morning I wake up I decide that I’m going to be happy today. Come what may, I’m going to be happy!”

Later that week, I heard another man describe the incredible pain of driving away from a treatment center in Arizona where he had just left his beautiful teenaged daughter, knowing that he wouldn’t see her again for 90 days. He felt like a complete failure, a loser as a father, and he was in agony over whether or not he would ever get his daughter back from the drugs which were stealing her life.

Now, I would never tell that man to wake up in the morning and decide to be happy! And I don’t think that TV preacher would either…

And I would not say to him, “Get behind me, Satan!”

But here is what I would be willing to say. Had he chosen to talk to me, I eventually would have lifted up the question – what do you suppose God is up to in your daughter’s life? And what do you suppose God is up to in YOUR life?

To set your mind on divine things means looking at every aspect of your life with the question – what is God up to here?

Maybe this round of suffering is redemptive. Maybe this round of suffering is intended to open new doors to God’s healing power in our lives. Maybe this round of suffering is God’s way of leading us into a new future. Maybe this round of suffering is God’s way of helping us grow up, to mature, to become what God has intended us to be all along.

Those are hard questions because they force us to recognize that God is God and we’re not. They force us to recognize that maybe God is up to something of which we do not know – God’s ways are not our ways.

To deny ourselves is to be humbled by the notion that we are not God, that God’s ways might not be our ways, and that we need to open to God’s direction. What we feel is right just might not be.

Let us pray: Dear God, the ocean is wide and our boat is so small. When we get caught up in the currents which threaten to sweep us away, help us to see, sense and rely upon your saving presence, your guidance and your direction. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Used with Permission