Category: Praise

Praise You In The Pits

I detest certain aspects of my disability, and number 3 with a bullet is when things fall off my lap. Keys, books, bowl of cereal, whatever. Oh, how I hate it! Recently, another item of immediate need took a header off the side of my leg and I just expelled a blast of disgusted air as it lay on the floor a full six inches from my outstretched arm. I didn’t cuss but dark and twisted words formed a multiple choice quiz in my mind. I selected ‘e’, none of the above, and wrote in my own on a blankety-blank line—you know the kind: more cultivated forms of popular expression, leaving off the more artful consonant or digraph. You know, just  to make it christian.

It was then the hot blade of conviction slipped between my ribs and struck a vital organ. For good measure, the steel that was forged in the fires of Mordor twisted a bit as it went in.

Ever happen to you?

Salt followed the blade and poured like Morton’s umbrellaed girl into the open wound and I yelped like holy blazes!

“Instead of clucking your tongue, sighing disgustedly and contorting your face as if this was the worst trial in the history of man, why not try praising Me?”
Hezekiah 19:11 (also quoted in the apocryphal book of Goober)

He caught me in mid-angst-expression, and I was holding the proverbial stolen cookie in my hand. The Voice-turned-CSI flipped a switch and my mind became a filing cabinet of  collected evidence, drawer after drawer opening on hanging folders chock full of similar events, complete with video clips of what I said and did in all those same circumstances previously. A pattern! It was embarrassing and I started pulling up fig leaves like underroos over my mental parts. Which was pretty silly when you think about it. Continue reading Praise You In The Pits

The Work of the Pit

“They lowered Jeremiah by ropes into the cistern; it had no water in it, only mud, and Jeremiah sank down into the mud.”
(Jeremiah 38:6, NIV)

“The Lord corrects the people He loves and disciplines those He calls His own.”
(Hebrews 12:6, CEV)

“But God corrects us for our own good, because He wants us to be holy, as He is.”
(Hebrews 12:10b, CEV)

“It is never fun to be corrected. In fact, at the time it is always painful…”
(Hebrews 12:11a, CEV)

“…but later it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.”
(Hebrews 12:11b, ESV)

“It hasn’t been much fun, but the work that it has done in my life has made it worth the hurt.”
–from The Fire, by Deb (Jackson) Searles

“Trials are not an elective in the Christian life, they are a required course. Patience is accepting a difficult situation without giving God a deadline.”
(C.S. Lewis)

I mean, what kind of God…?

Really? When I’m already in a valley?

This pit? Are you kidding me?

Talk about insult to injury.

I repeat: what kind of God responds to the helpless cry of a person already at the end of their rope by saying “let go” only to drop them into a deeper well?

But for the grace of God, that could’ve been my attitude.

But on today, of all days, there’s something I want to say. I discovered something a few months ago. A refresher course, if you will. I learned that while I do not like the pit, I am loyally in love with the work of the pit.

As it happens, today is Saturday.

A year ago this very day, the sky was overcast with a dull, newspaper gray.  

Today is bright, sunny and rife with speechless beauty.

Last year I was the sickest I have ever been in my life.

Today I am whole, healthy and spectacularly alive. Soli deo gloria!

Last year, on this day, I was in a spiritual valley. As I recorded in my journal back then, “Bring peace, Lord. I am blessed you are there, Lord, to listen to and succor me in this dark valley. I confess I am helpless without You. Without You, I am dead. You are Life. Power. Supply. Resurrection. Peace. Everything.”

(All the things I would need Him to be, in short order.)

But that was then; this is now. Today, a year later, I stand astride a mountain peak, breathing in celestial air, resurrection life, keeping the pipes hot with songs of deliverance. I’m worshipping to the song I listened to a year ago–before I fell past a valley and into a pit.

I know I’m loved
I know I’m wanted
(I don’t want to insult the cross by not believing in Your Love)
I want to stare at the Face of Jesus
Look in His Eyes once more
Worship Him with all of my heart
For His Love is pounding on my door!

Then it was an assumption, today it is proof of life. Back then it was a truth, but now it’s THE Truth I have forever.

Once upon a time it was a doctrine I would die for. Now it is a blessing I live for.

What lesson have I discovered down there? It’s pretty cool. And I give it to you for free: The work of the pit has made it possible to experience another realm of glory, a new vista that amazes; it’s like I’ve gone from analog to digital, from standard definition to HD.

And getting more HD all the time.

But that’ll probably take some more pits. Or valleys. Or both.

Sorry, George Takei. Quattron may be the television we all just have to have, but my “oh my!” trumps yours, as good as yours is.

Eye has not seen…

Yes, that’s true.

But…

“these things God has revealed to us through His Spirit”
(1 Cor. 2:10)

If we’re teachable.

If we have ears to hear.

What have you learned in your pit?