I know that title sounds like something I may have overheard from my pre-schooler, but it isn’t. It’s something that’s been on my mind lately. How God isn’t intimidated by junk. He is the greenest God out there with His dedication to the three “R”s: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. He even adds 4th and 5th “R”s: Restore and Redeem.
I’ve been watching. I’ve been listening and there is not a lot of grace at times for the junk in our lives.
When we don’t like the junk in our marriages, we leave it and get a new one.
When we don’t like the junk in our jobs, we leave, and start something new.
When we don’t like the junk in our schools, our neighborhoods or even our churches, we just find something that fits better.
I’m not going to say we should always stay. There is definitely a time when we should move-on in all of those areas. I AM saying, we should never be quick about it.
I’ve decided to become a Spiritual Environmentalist. I can do my part to save the earth, if I’m willing to do more than I have been with the junk I encounter.
You see, I’m watching someone in authority deal with one of my sons, and I don’t particularly like the way she handles things. I don’t care for how she treats him, and there’s an overwhelming feeling in me, despite the nice things she says and the way she smiles and waves, that she doesn’t really appreciate him. Call it instinct, but I’ve felt it from the time I met her and I’ve tried to overlook it, but it’s there.
I know that my kids aren’t always likeable, not everyone is going to like them all the time, and I’m okay with that. But my first thought was, “well we’ll just endure this until we can move him to a different situation.” The Holy Spirit got holy on me and tenderly turned my eyes back to this…
…person.
She is a person see. A person He loves. A person He can redeem.
He isn’t interested in moving-on when it comes to this person.
He’s interested in restoring whatever is broken in her. Whatever it is, it’s what she’s using to look at my boy. Our own brokenness becomes the lens we see others through, and until we change that lens, turn it in for restoration, we are always seeing others a little fuzzy.
I don’t know what God wants to do with her, but I know this. For me to have that thought means someone is praying for her. For me to have that thought means God is watching ALL of this. Every detail played out, is under His observation. For me to have that thought means God wants me to pray. I can pray for her, but I need to be praying for wisdom in this. I need to see where He’s going, what He’s doing and see if He isn’t trying to work a miracle in her.
He can reduce the waste in this situation. Allowing me to filter it down to only what is truth, leaving my opinion and my feelings out of it. Knowing that all my needs are under His protection and care, I am free to consider others before myself.
He can clean up and reuse the lens she’s looking at others through to become a lens that doesn’t filter her view of others, but gives her discernment because of her own experiences.
He can recycle her situation to bring glory to Him.
This is His restoration. This is His redemption. Not just the grace to handle life, but the grace to change it from within.
Every area of our lives will see stress, frustration and turmoil.
Jesus never tried to sugarcoat it.
Our desire to find grace for those who bring tribulation, is often the key to our ability to see that the world truly has been overcome.
A little tough to swallow, but a word of truth. Thanks!