May 4: Choices, Obvious and Difficult

Judges 19:1-20:48
John 3:22-4:3
Psalm 104:24-35
Proverbs 14:22-24

Today's psalms give testament to the overwhelming power of God, and to how completely we can depend upon Him. It talks of how He created the sea, full of creatures, even Leviathan "which you formed to frolic there". Consider the idea of creation - of the formation of something from nothing. Man has not seen its process - anything we "create", we really only transform. We take wood and turn it into furniture. We take food and turn it into energy. We do not really create anything from nothing. But God did - and His creations are not inanimate - they are "living things both large and small".

His greatness does not end there. Where my sons might build something out of their Lego pieces, they then leave their "creation" on the shelf. God is different - He gives His creations "their food at the proper time"; and when He opens His hand, "they are satisfied with good things." As inexplicable are HIs decision to create us and His power to do so, so too is His desire to provide for us inexplicable as well. Yet there it is - He is faithful, and we can trust in His provision.

In that context, then, when confronted with difficulty, with pain and with troubles, as was the man whose concubine (whom he'd just reclaimed from her unfaithfulness) was brutally raped and murdered, when confronted with situations we cannot understand, situations that lead us to question where God was or whether He cared - we have a choice It is a difficult one, but make no mistake - it IS a choice. We can choose to focus on the situation we do not understand, or on the God Whom we know exists, trusting that He will give us our food at the proper time, and satisfy us with good things.

Typing while sitting in a train on the way to work, the right choice seems so obvious as to be silly. I pray that when, inevitably, God chooses to permit us the challenging situations we need to grow according to His will into the people He plans for us to become, that we will have such a relationship with Him that the choice will remain obvious, and will not be so difficult.