What About Me?
This is my third article of three dealing with how to respond to disappointment with God. (You can click here for Part One and here for Part Two.) I often say, it isn’t disappointment that defeats us but how we respond to the disappointment. This is especially true when it seems his preference for someone else has superseded our own needs.
Bert loved to help people. He was truly a servant. I loved that he loved helping others . . . until it interfered with something I needed done. Early in our marriage, I was always the last person to have her needs met. I can’t count the number of times we missed a movie or a date night as he left me waiting while he helped the neighbor with a non-emergency. The result was a lot of resentment on my part – toward Bert AND toward the neighbor. That of course changed as we learned how to value each other and communicate better with each other but I am reminded of it whenever I read the following story in the Bible.
Who Do You Believe?
My final narrative is from Mark 5:21-43. It’s the story of Jairus and his dying daughter. Jairus is a religious leader who humbles himself to ask Jesus to come and heal his little daughter who is dying. Jesus agrees but on the way they are interrupted by the healing of the woman who was hemorrhaging. Subsequently the news reaches Jairus that his daughter has died. Jesus tells him “Don’t be afraid; just believe.” It’s at this point in the story that we realize Jairus is at a crossroad. He can “just believe” or he can blame Jesus for stalling and bitterly send him packing. He chooses to just believe.
I’m not a blind faith kind of girl. If I pray for a broken arm and the bone is still sticking out when I get done, I generally admit it’s still broken. However there have been a few times in my walk that God told me to believe him over what I could see. It’s not my practice but when God says, “just believe,” I try to just believe.
Jairus chooses to go forward with Jesus and believe. He chooses to believe regardless of the news that has just come. He chooses to believe in spite of the professional mourners. He chooses to believe when he sees his daughter lying in death. His choice has brought the only one who can restore into his home and invited the restoration. If, in our discouragement and disappointment, we can go forward with Jesus, we see hopeless situations transformed.
What Do You Choose?
Like Zechariah in my first article of the series, the least we can do is continue to serve in faith until we learn to trust again. I’m not recommending this as a plan of action. As Zechariah revealed, buried disappointment will always bear the fruit of bitterness and bitterness can nullify fulfilled hope.
A better choice would be to lay everything out before God as Hannah did in my second article. It’s called communication. Any relationship worth preserving will require honest communication to survive. Even if your dream isn’t restored, at least you know you’ve been heard. Quite often that’s also a point of healing.
I believe the best choice of action is the one Jairus chose. He believed Jesus and moved forward in spite of what things looked like. Sometimes when things look like they aren’t going to work out, we have to ask God what to do next. And then do that.
The absolute worst choice would be to turn our backs on God. To walk away, allowing our disappointment to invalidate everything that’s gone before. Why things have turned out as they have may remain a mystery to us on this side of heaven but God still remains the ultimate hope of the world. He’s still the solution even when the solution looks nothing like what we thought it should.
Was there ever a time in you walk of faith that you felt like God really let you down? How have you dealt with it ? Any tips? I’m really interested in your thoughts.
Prayer Matters
I’m praying God will remind us of times he turned things around for us. That he will give us his perspective on the events that have seemed hopeless to us. I’m praying he will restore our ability to hope in the darkest of moments. Finally, I’m praying he will heal every hurt that stems from disappointment and invite us to go further with him.
Thanks for reading my blog. What about you? What are you praying for? Share by commenting or you can contact me privately with any prayer concerns at pastorn1975@gmail.com .
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