Downstream without paddles

I have recently felt like I am drifting down a river without oars or paddles…..trying to use my hands to steer to one side or another….but with no use. My course is not in my own and certainly not in my control. I pray to God, call out to Him to deal with the injustices that I face and the path that I am on, but things have seemed to get worse. I put my hands in the water again and scoop for control, but still cannot change course. “I’m stuck,” I told my husband recently. “All I can do is float along. Nothing seems to help.” And he told me about a camping/nature show he saw where someone was physically in that same situation. “The guy was encouraged when the speed picked up, because it meant he would eventually be dumped out to sea and he would land.

Eventually we do land. Situations change. Damage can be assessed, and life can go on. I don’t know where this trip will end. Neither did Job when he was also feeling so alone and out of control of the events in his life. In Job 19, he thinks all his misfortune are a direct assault from God. “How long will you assault me and crush me with your words? Though I call for help, there is not justice. He has blocked my way so I cannot pass; he has shrouded my paths in darkness. He tears me down….he uproots my hope like a tree…”

And on he goes about all that is wrong in his life, until he uses the word ‘forever.” I can’t say for sure, but I have to wonder if something deep in his spirit quickened when he said that, because his perspective becomes eternal and suddenly, his problems just aren’t so unbearable.

“I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see him with my own eyes – I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me!”

Does your heart yearn just to read those words? Isn’t it reassuring to know that no matter where you are or what shore you land on, that God DOES love you. And, that your circumstances are certainly in His control. That he will bring you out on the other side. And, dear, sweet child of God, You YOURSELF will see him and be with YOUR God Forever.