O God, You have rejected us, broken our defenses.
You have been angry. O, restore us.
You have made the land to quake. You have torn it open.
Repair its breaches, for it totters.
You have made Your people see hard things.
You have given us wine to drink that made us stagger. (Verses 1-3)
Ever feel like God is playing spiritual Jenga with your life. Block on block you have built a mini Tower of Babel, reaching toward the various goals you have set. The problem with Jenga is that just one piece removed from the structure can make all of them collapse. Or adding a piece on top of the structure can create a top-heaviness that ruins its equilibrium. I am a Jenga block puzzle given to tottering. Of course, I wouldn't fall over if I were structurally sound. But, let's face it, I have put up defenses, built my life with many breaches, seen some hard things (done some bad stuff) and drunk the world's wine until I stagger from its headiness. What to do?
I am thankful God doesn't just knock me down all at once and start over because I couldn't live through that. He does, however, rebuild my faulty pipe dream piece by piece. Refits the blocks in an order that can sustain further breaches or massive quaking.
I was just talking this morning with a friend about how we build the defenses in our lives. What makes us keep people or circumstances out or lets them in. Have some of us been so battered that we hold up a hand against invasion because we cannot trust others? Do we build walls that shouldn't be there or have we torn down some that should have stood the test of the battles? All of the above.
In the rebuilding process, though, I can attest to the fact that often God seems far away. As if He has rejected us. It is obvious why. Even when our parents correctly disciplined us as kids, we didn't like them for a while. Felt they had it in for us. Because no discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful (Hebrews). It works for us, though. If we don't give up, we get stronger, lose weight, gain momentum and flourish.
So maybe viewing myself as a lovely creation with some fundamental foundational flaws can help me to understand it better when God has to take a few of my blocks out of the middle and reorder them. I can yell, "Ouch!" Because it is uncomfortable. But if I want to withstand the earthquakes, defend against attack, be fortified for the long term I have to let my God "tear open the earth" beneath me to see what is left. Brick by brick and block by block, when He is finished with the repair job, I'm gonna be looking pretty good! It will be evident then, that God never left me at all. No rejection. No abandonment. I could only see Him that way because of all my foundational damage. When the trembling begins, I will totter less. I will pass up the liquor that made me licentious for the elixir that makes me joyful. My boundaries will let only those in and out who will not damage my walls or breach my confidences.
I will be the most frustrating Jenga in the land!
You have been angry. O, restore us.
You have made the land to quake. You have torn it open.
Repair its breaches, for it totters.
You have made Your people see hard things.
You have given us wine to drink that made us stagger. (Verses 1-3)
Ever feel like God is playing spiritual Jenga with your life. Block on block you have built a mini Tower of Babel, reaching toward the various goals you have set. The problem with Jenga is that just one piece removed from the structure can make all of them collapse. Or adding a piece on top of the structure can create a top-heaviness that ruins its equilibrium. I am a Jenga block puzzle given to tottering. Of course, I wouldn't fall over if I were structurally sound. But, let's face it, I have put up defenses, built my life with many breaches, seen some hard things (done some bad stuff) and drunk the world's wine until I stagger from its headiness. What to do?
I am thankful God doesn't just knock me down all at once and start over because I couldn't live through that. He does, however, rebuild my faulty pipe dream piece by piece. Refits the blocks in an order that can sustain further breaches or massive quaking.
I was just talking this morning with a friend about how we build the defenses in our lives. What makes us keep people or circumstances out or lets them in. Have some of us been so battered that we hold up a hand against invasion because we cannot trust others? Do we build walls that shouldn't be there or have we torn down some that should have stood the test of the battles? All of the above.
In the rebuilding process, though, I can attest to the fact that often God seems far away. As if He has rejected us. It is obvious why. Even when our parents correctly disciplined us as kids, we didn't like them for a while. Felt they had it in for us. Because no discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful (Hebrews). It works for us, though. If we don't give up, we get stronger, lose weight, gain momentum and flourish.
So maybe viewing myself as a lovely creation with some fundamental foundational flaws can help me to understand it better when God has to take a few of my blocks out of the middle and reorder them. I can yell, "Ouch!" Because it is uncomfortable. But if I want to withstand the earthquakes, defend against attack, be fortified for the long term I have to let my God "tear open the earth" beneath me to see what is left. Brick by brick and block by block, when He is finished with the repair job, I'm gonna be looking pretty good! It will be evident then, that God never left me at all. No rejection. No abandonment. I could only see Him that way because of all my foundational damage. When the trembling begins, I will totter less. I will pass up the liquor that made me licentious for the elixir that makes me joyful. My boundaries will let only those in and out who will not damage my walls or breach my confidences.
I will be the most frustrating Jenga in the land!
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