from muddy to majestic

I said, "Oh, that I had the wings of a dove! I would fly away and be at rest -- I would flee far away and stay in the desert; I would hurry to my place of shelter, far from the tempest and storm." Psalm 55:6-8

I say this fairly often, but the thing that I love most about reading David's Psalms is reading his words of distress and anguish. His words are so raw in the Psalms as he cries out to God in his pain. You can hear the unveiled fear in his voice. You can imagine his lip quivering as he holds back the tears and shakes his fist at the Most High in a desperate plea for his Savior to come to his rescue. Knowing that David was called "a man after God's own heart" and knowing that he was a man set apart by God to literally bring down a fierce giant of a warrior and rule over an entire nation, it makes me feel pretty good to know that he too had times of utter dependence on God and moments of complete weakness and frailty. If he had those moments, surely it's normal for little ol' me to have them too. *Sigh of relief.*

I love how as I read my devotions this morning, the book mentioned that God actually insists on our enduring suffering because it produces results that nothing else can accomplish. It's so true. It's in the midst of our grief and pain that we cling to Jesus Christ in a desperate, no-holds-barred kind of surrender. We don't do that when things are going fabulously and completely in our favor. Instead we become complacent and arrogant in our serenity.

There exists a unique beauty in being desperate. It's in those moments of desperation that we gain clarity because our eyes are finally open to the fact that we can't manage to live fully without Jesus Christ. We can get by in this life by maintaining a mediocre existence if we're dependent fully on ourselves, but we know the end result of a Godless life: certain death. In those times where we feel hopeless, those are the instances where we are made truly aware of where our hope lies -- in Christ and in Him alone!

And so how is it that we are to endure in the midst of suffering? When everything in our lives seems to be spiraling out of control, how are we supposed to persevere as the Scripture urges us to? My devotional book reminded me today

My friend and I just completed an endurance marathon called the Muddy Buddy. We trained for the race beforehand by running and biking as much as we could. Although we knew there would be obstacles to complete during the race, we didn't know ahead of time what type of obstacles we would be encountering exactly. All we could really do was prepare ourselves to endure whatever challenges we came up against.

When the day of the race finally arrived, we were surprised at how difficult it was. Biking and running through the sand was incredibly difficult. We never knew what obstacle we would have to complete at each transition point until we actually arrived there. At one transition station, it was a rock wall we had to climb. At another, we had to cross over a long balance beam. Each station was different. Pedal stroke after pedal stroke, one foot in front of the other, mile by mile we traversed through the sandy terrain and through the black, muddy pit at the end of the race to finally make it across the finish line. We were covered in black mud and our eyes were blinded by all of the dirt in our eyes, but volunteers awaited us and hosed us off so that we could finally see again. It was such a rush having completed such a difficult journey so victoriously!

That's how it works in a life dependent on Christ. We can't know ahead of time what obstacles or trials we will face as we round each bend in the winding path. We simply know that hard times will come up and that we will indeed suffer in the midst of them. It is in the process of enduring those trials and tribulations that we build eternal results as we learn to lean more dependently on Jesus Christ and rely less on our own strength mile by mile, one foot in front of the other. We will inevitably have to face the dark, muddy pit of humanity and pain and filth, but we will indeed reach the finish line. We have a Redeemer who washes us clean of all of the mud and the muck, who refreshes our soul after its long and weary journey. Our pain and suffering isn't in vain. It has a purpose that is rich with hope and grace. At the end of this endurance marathon called life awaits our Heavenly Father who will remove the dirt from our eyes so that we might finally see clearly and with eternal perspective. I can't wait...