"GIVE ME AN ORDER OF NORMAL PLEASE!"
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I long for a bit of normal. Heading to church with a full room of our friends. No masks. No COVID. No bitter election season. No sickness. No anger. No riots. No empty football stands with silly cardboard cutouts and piped in fan noise (who thought of that?) No hypocrisy by me or anyone else.
But, do you know what I'd rather have than all of that? Jesus. I'm not being smug or super-spiritual. I really need and want more of Jesus in my life, my thoughts. I want to be better refined into His image. More grace. More prayer. More humility. More glad surrender to His control. More spiritual power. More boldness to share the good news with others.
I once heard Adrian Rogers say, "I don't know how much of Jesus you have, but I know you have all you want." God is not withholding Himself from us. He just has a path to know Him that was not on our radar.
God has always allowed the struggles of this present world to accomplish higher purposes. He wants to bring us to brokenness and the glad surrender of our wills so we will lay down our idols and turn to the only One who can satisfy the deepest longings of our souls.
So, I need not resent these these trials as "intruders, but welcome them as friends, knowing they come to test our faith and produce in us the quality of spiritual endurance" (James 1:2-3, Phillips translation). I need to embrace God's sovereign activity in my world and my life for His glorious purposes.
I'd love some normal, but I don't want it at the expense of not knowing Him who is life indeed.