By Lenore Buth
How are you doing these days?
Some of us are super-busy, working from home, home-schooling and oh yes, by the way, caring for our families. How could it be anything but a bit chaotic?
Other people cleaned every corner of their homes, organized every closet and drawer and they’re feeling proud, as they should be.
It’s safe to say a lot of us feel like this trio.
I’m bored, too, stuck in my office. I’m digging through piles of clippings and notes I scribbled to myself, all of it file-clipped together in bunches. I hang onto this stuff because sometimes I can’t think what to write about.
Then I dig through my “Miscellaneous” folders and page through until something sparks my thinking enough to get started.
Like this wisdom that still speaks
One long-ago day I browsed in a museum shop and found treasure, a sheet of fake parchment with words that looked to be written with a quill pen. The package label stated the original traced back to the battle of Gettysburg. After the shooting stopped someone pulled a grimy, folded sheet of paper from the pocket of a dead soldier. That tattered page held these timeless words.
I asked God for strength that I might achieve.
I was made weak that I might learn humbly to obey.
I asked for health that I might do greater things.I was given infirmity that I might do better things.
I asked for riches that I might be happy.
I was given poverty that I might be wise.
I asked for power that I might have the praise of men.
I was given weakness that I might feel the need of God.
I asked for all things that I might enjoy life.
I was given life that I might enjoy all things.
I got nothing that I asked for, but everything I hoped for.
Almost despite myself, my unspoken prayers were answered.
I am, among all men, most richly blessed."
--An Anonymous Soldier of the Confederacy
Nothing that I asked for, but everything I hoped for
Many of us could say that about our own lives.
The times we didn’t want to do a thing, didn’t want to move somewhere, didn’t believe anything could be better. Then later we saw the blessings, beyond anything we thought or imagined.
Call it proof of Romans 8:28, God’s promise playing out before our eyes.
And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
Our loving Father never takes his eyes off us
He always, always works for our good. The more we tune our hearts to him the more we see his mercy and his kindness.
Corrie ten Boom lived that every day of her life. That’s why she could say,
“Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow, it empties today of its strength.”
I once heard Corrie tell about her time as a prisoner in Ravensbruck, a Nazi prison camp. She and her sister Betsie had managed to bring a Bible with them and lived in fear the guards would find out. Then, as Corrie saw it, God sent an invasion of lice.
She told Betsie, “Think how God has blessed us with these lice! Yes, we are itching, but see how the guards stay away from this building? Now we can read our Bible to the women and pray together without fear. No one will bother us.”
Corrie said that ever after, she thanked God for those lice. Some of us are dealing with “lice” right now, like pay cuts and job uncertainty or loss. We don’t know anything for sure except that we want this to be over with. Now.
It’s the same for us
When we run our fears over in our minds day and night, all it does is blind us to everything good in people and in our life.
Thankfulness helps us see God’s hand in our lives and it changes the way we think. We know the Truth.
But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness. –Lamentations 3:21-23
But I trust in you, O LORD; I say, "You are my God." My times are in your hand … Be strong, and let your heart take courage, all you who wait for the LORD! –Psalm 31:14-15a; 24
One man expressed his faith this way:
Life need not be easy to be joyful. Joy is not the absence of trouble, but the presence of Christ. –William Vander Hoven
And so it is with us. Our faithful God is still in control. Jesus, our Savior is with us every minute.
When we keep that truth at the front of our minds we find meaning in each day and anxiety flies away.
Lenore Buth is glad to be part of the St. Matthew family of believers. She has been writing for many years, including newspaper and magazine articles, as well as several books and materials for Concordia Publishing House. She has been writing a weekly blog post since the summer of 2008. You can check it out at www.awomansview.typepad.com.