Sacred Scraps: Get Up




She said, “May your servant find favor in your eyes.” Then she went her way and ate something, and her face was no longer downcast. 1 Samuel 1:18

I heard this verse in a message on a recent retreat.  (By the way, I know I am all over in Scripture lately.  Sorry.  Just following Grace wherever I can grasp some.)  I knew the story of course.  Hannah wants to have children but has been unable despite years of pleading with God.  Then we learn of the latest hounding session where a priest sees her and confronts her, thinking that her despair was actually drunkenness.  He finds out what the deal is and blesses her.  She gets up, changed, eats something, and is no longer depressed.  Eventually she does have that baby, named Samuel, who becomes a great prophet.

Probably none of us are strangers to disappointment.  It seems to be part of the human condition.  We have expectations.  We have desires.  People drink coffee out of mugs that remind the drinker that God has "plans to prosper you."  Heck, we have "the American DREAM." 

But dreams aren't reality, are they?

Sometimes it is as heart wrenching as Hannah's, involving a child who never comes or one who leaves too soon.  Sometimes it is simply never getting the opportunity to get that career or that job.  But we all find ourselves disappointed at some point.  Well, several points.

I don't think Hannah was able to get up and eat and not be depressed because she knew she was going to carry a child.  I think she was able to do this because of Who she trusted.

We all want to believe that our desires will become real.  But that isn't what happens, is it.  Instead of anchoring ourselves,, our success, and our futures to our desires, maybe it would be best to see our desires as an after thought?  Maybe holding on to the One who doesn't disappoint is the only reasonable response to this world.  And, no, I don't believe the coffee quote, per se.  I believe that God has me.  I believe that God is in control, ultimately, no matter what the world and my disappointment tells me.

I will get up, get a snack and release those expectations that weigh my heart down.  Life may disappoint, but God never does.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Christ in His Distressing Disguise

Image
When I was much younger, I learned about this remarkable woman, Blessed Teresa of Calcutta, then simply known as Mother Teresa. As a teenager herself, she had chosen to serve God by leaving her home in the former Yugoslavia to go practically around the world to India and become a nun. There she taught school, but she was distracted by the poor on the streets. Longing to care for them, she needed to be released from her teaching duties. Eventually a new religious order, the Missionaries of Charity, was formed by Mother Teresa to serve them, the poorest of the poor. I wonder today what attracted me to her. I didn't know much about India. The pictures of the suffering, the cachetic bodies that barely resembled humans, puzzled me. Growing up with movies and air brushed photographs, as well as a skepticism of news and government organizations, it can be hard to believe. How can there be such incredible suffering in my world? Mother Teresa was doing God's work; I know that was exciti
Read more

Blog Carnival-Seasons

Image
It was all so much simpler in my spring.  I suppose it is for everyone.  That is why babies and puppies and newness are squealed over.  I have been struggling.  Spring has long gone.  The leaves are falling. I loved what I had, what once defined me. Without it now, I feel like a crab without a shell-              vulnerable...                            homeless...                                           dry in spirit. I know, that all is not lost. I know, things change. I know, that God,              who brought me from there to there once,              will bring me from here to there again. I know, the story is not over. I know, the season will change, again. I wish my heart knew all this as well. Check out more blog entries on Seasons at the Carnival .
Read more

Blog Carnival: Community

Image
Blog Carnival: Community Community is getting to be a buzzword that hardly seems recognizable.  It has become permanently connected with a metrosexual worship leader at the hip church which has an outreach into some impoverished place.  But is that community? Yesterday I wrote about Facebook's social networking site.  Did you know that there are more than 300 million active users and that 50% of their active users (returned to the site in the last 30 days) log on to Facebook in any given day and that the average user has 130 friends on the site? Is that community? Do we really have a community or do we talk so much about it and request friends by the busload because we desire it intensely? We were made for community.  Creator said it was not good for that first man to be alone.  Even Creator was not alone.  We need to walk with others.  We need our village.  We need them to not only walk with us and love us and share our burdens, but to challenge us, to force us to grow.
Read more