Skip to main content

My Too-Short Arms

Happy new year!!

Yes, I know it's almost May, but this is my first blog post of the year and I thought it was appropriate to greet you all properly.

Anyway, I have been meaning to write. So much has happened and so much needs to be said, but I have been putting it off. Not sure why exactly. Perhaps, I have just been fighting against the inevitable. Actually, that is exactly the reason.

James Weldon Johnson has a poem called, Prodigal Son, where the speaker proclaims that the subject's arms are too short to box with God.

That's me. Desperately trying to spar with the Creator, but my arms are too short. The end result? No punches have landed, I'm fighting the air...and I'm tired.

God's sovereign will is a heckuva thing to come against. So why do we try?

I wish I had an answer for that. Something about the human will seeks to exalt itself. It began happening in the Garden of Eden and has been occurring ever since.

Oh yeah, we sing songs like, "Sweet will of God, still fold me closer to I am wholly lost in Thee" and we pray prayers telling the Almighty that we want His will to be done, not ours. Yet as soon as He asserts His will, we balk and cry and complain.

Or maybe that is just me, so let me speak for myself.

Well, no more! I am raising my white flag in surrender and drawing a line in the sand. This is it. God's will or bust! Who's with me?

Seriously, who's with me? Let me know.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Ride or Die

I love this phrase. There are quite a few subtle variations on the meaning, but it is an urban colloquialism that means loyalty, no matter what. I thank God that I have been blessed with a few people that have that kind of loyalty to me and I to them. It's a rich blessing that have true friends. They are with me and in my corner no matter what (or "regardless of what" as one of them would say). This week we had Vacation Bible School at my church and I was privileged to be a teacher. The first lesson was taken from Daniel chapter three. The very well known story of the three Hebrew boys: Shadrach, Meschach and Abednego. It is a wonderful story of faith, but something jumped out at me so profoundly that it almost knocked me over. We always focus on the deliverance. But the Hebrew boys did not. Their focus was on God and Him alone. They were ride or die for the Lord. Literally. If you read the story, they never once pray for deliverance. They talk about God's a...

Rocks, Gravel, Sand and Water

Let me first start by saying that I cannot take credit for the following example, as I did not originate it. In fact, I was listening to Turning Point with Dr. David Jeremiah and I was so touched by what he shared that I thought I would share it with all of you. Let's say I have a large, empty 5-gallon jar. If I place fist sized rocks into the jar until no more can fit, is it full? Before you answer, let me say that after I place the rocks in the jar, I pick up a bag of gravel and begin to pour that into the jar. Where does the gravel go? In between the spaces left by the rocks. After I fill the jar to the brim with gravel, is it full? Before you answer, consider this: I pour a bag of sand into the jar. Where does the sand go? Into the spaces left by the gravel, of course. After filling the jar to the brim with sand, is it full? Before you answer, consider this: I pour a pitcher of water into the same jar. Where does the water go? Into the spaces between the grains of sa...

Was That Supposed To Be For Me?

An organisation to which I belong used to do a gift exchange for Christmas. Each member would have a few weeks to purchase something for the person whose name was randomly selected from a hat (or bag, whichever was closest). If I am not mistaken, we did this gift exchange for about four years before abandoning the idea. Not one year went by without there being some fuss because inevitably at least one person would get a gift that in no way compared to the one s/he purchased. The leader of my organisation went as far as to impose a monetary maximum AND minimum on the value of the gift, all in an effort to avoid the hurt feelings at the time of the exchange.  Not even that worked. The night always ended with some bickering and complaining. "Look at this cheap thing that I got!" or "Do you know how much time I spent looking for the perfect gift for my person and this is all I get?!" or "Was this supposed to be for me?" People's feelings were hurt a...