238 - “The Worst is Never The Worst” Lamentations 1-2

 

Lamentations 1:1 - How empty the city, once teeming with people...1:8 - Jerusalem, who outsinned the whole world is an outcast.  1:9 - She played fast and lose with life; she never considered tomorrow.  1:16 She weeps buckets of tears and not one person cares for her soul.  What are her tears for?  What are my tears for this evening as I sit at a Starbucks contemplating my future?  Are they for myself?  If so, I will think no one cares for my soul.  It's just not true because of Lamentations 3. 2:19 - Get up each watch night and pour out your heart face-to-face with the Master.  Lift up your hands.  Lift up your head.

God poured on the trouble and hard times.  He locked me up in deep darkness.   He's got me cornered.  BUT, there's one other thing I am remembering that gives me a grip on hope:  God's loyal love couldn't have run out, His merciful love couldn't have dried up. They're created new every morning.  How great your faithfulness! I'm sticking with God (I say it over and over).  He's all I've got left. God proves to be good to the man who passionately waits, to the woman who diligently seeks. It's a good thing to quietly hope, quietly hope for help from God. It's a good thing when you're young to stick it out through the hard times. When life is heavy and hard to take, go off by yourself. Enter the silence. Bow in prayer. Don't ask questions: Wait for hope to appear. Don't run from trouble. Take it full-face. The "worst" is never the worst.  Why? Because the Master won't ever walk out and fail to return. God's got my back.     

PHOTO:  I couldn't sleep the last few weeks of my pregnancy with Britt. Probably out of fright. Whatever. It was the worst---but never the last worst. God was merciful and gave me this baby to hold all my days. I couldn't love him more. He meant the world to me. It was a token of God's love waiting 7 years for this most precious moment to arrive. I never got over it. I never got over Britt. I never got over God.