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(Saturday, July 14, 2007-)
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# No Pit Stops
Just came back from Musicians Meeting and I strongly felt God speaking to me about this. So if you're living in the pits of life, if your life is in the valleys of despair, if u've hit a bottom u never knew existed in ur heart, or you just stumbled upon my blog, this post is for you.
Life is a rollercoaster, some say. It goes up... then down... then up and down again. We have high points in our lives, when our friends are all around us, when everything is going smoothly, when we are loved by everyone, when things just fall into place.
Then, there's also the times when everything jsut doesn't seem to work out. There are the times when it all just turns out wrong, or the worst... when we try to do something good, and get all sorts of crap for it.
We come to a conclusion that life is pretty much like the sine curve, or simple harmonic motion, lots of movement up and down, but going nowhere. Even the sine graph which goes on forever, when integrated has a 0 for the area under the graph. Even simple harmonic motions will dampen till zero. We feel that life is just meaningless. A series of ups and downs.
In the book, The Screwtape Letters, by C S Lewis, he calls it the Law of Undulation.
un·du·la·tion
Function: noun
1 a : a rising and falling in waves
Back to the musicians sharing session, we were talking about Planet Shakers' youth pastor from the latest album, Saviour of the World, and how Ps Mike wrote the song Healer. When? When he just got diagnosed with Leukaemia. When he was in the pits of life, he was able to praise God. When in the valleys of life, he didn't stay there, he got over it and came out victorious. And hence the title of the post today. It's what i heard from God while Emmanuel (that's a guy's name im referring to) was sharing about his thoughts.
NO PIT STOPS
God was telling me that that is how we should live our lives. When we reach the pits, we must not stop there. We don't come to a halt just because our lives are in the pits. We don't stop. We move on, with God's help.
So I asked God what else does He want to tell me about this? And what I have heard so far are basically 2 stories. One, is the story of none other than the man after God's own heart, David.
The story will start basically in 2 Samuel 12, where David had just "murdered" the husband of Bathsheba and married her. And God was displeased and told David through Nathan the prophet that his son would die. And it wasn't just a quick painless death, the child was sick for seven days. And for that seven days, David fasted and begged God to spare his son's life. But God still punished David. His life was in the pits. His only son had just died.
The next story is that of Joseph. The other classic one i know, but just listen with me. Most of us know the story.
Joseph got two dream, where his brothers were subject to him, and his brothers hated him and they threw him into a pit. His life was literally in the pits... As if that wasn't bad enough, his brothers changed their minds and sold him as a slave. Not only did their brother get their hands clean for not "killing" him, they made money as well. Then as a slave, he got even more crap for standing up for what was right. When he refused to get involved with his master's wife, he got framed for molestation and was thrown into prison. Joseph didn't have anything going for him.
But this is what we should do when our lives are at the lowest points. When we feel we are all alone, inadequate, unable to steer through the storms of life, insufficient.
David asked his servants if his son was dead (cuz they were too scared to tell the king who has been mourning for 7 full days). And when he heard the news, this is what he did, from 2 Samuel 12 still
20 Then David got up from the ground. After he had washed, put on lotions and changed his clothes, he went into the house of the LORD and worshiped. Then he went to his own house, and at his request they served him food, and he ate.
21 His servants asked him, "Why are you acting this way? While the child was alive, you fasted and wept, but now that the child is dead, you get up and eat!"
He did not stay in depression, he did not stop in the pits of life. He did not abandon God who punished him. He turned back to God straight away when he realised that God wasn't going to save his son.
Then what did Joseph do? He had the right attitude. When sold as a slave, he became the best slave money could buy. When he was thrown in jail, he was the best prisoner a warden could ask for. So good that he was made in charge of everything, not only that.. check this out, from Genesis 39
23The keeper of the prison looked not to any thing that was under his hand; because the LORD was with him, and that which he did, the LORD made it to prosper.
I think to myself, how on earth does on PROSPER in prison? But that's how God favour acts upon ur life.
So in conclusion, in life, there should be NO PIT STOPS. Yes, we will experience the pits and valleys of life, but hey, when Jesus prayed to the father for us, He prayed that we be taken out of this (evil) world but that we be protected from the evil one in John 17v15.
So how do we drag ourselves out of the pits we are in? We offer a sacrifice of praise as mentioned specifically in Hebrews 13v15. We praise God for who He is, even when it hurts. When it costs us something. When we have to sacrifice our emotions, and let God take control of all.
When we are in the pits, its so easy to feel depressed, like we have no potential to achieve anything, but that's ok. It's ok to feel lousy, sad, whatever, but not to stay that way. Draw near to God instead.
Think of the Energy versus Displacement graph of an oscillation. When the Potential Energy is at ZERO (0), then only is the Kinetic Energy Maximum.
When we feel we can't do it anymore, when we can't go on, that's when we rely on God's energy to keep us moving. Yes its sad that we usually turn to God when we are in the lowest points, but in those moments of weakness, His strength is made perfect. That is the only way we can get truly refreshed. And start soaring once again, to greater heights, instead of continuing in undulation
So lastly, I'll part with these words
All who are thristy,
All who are weak,
Come to the fountain,
Dip your heart in the streams of life,
Let the pain and the sorrow,
Be washed away,
In the waves of His mercy,
As deep cries out to deep
Come Lord Jesus, come
Come Lord Jesus, come
-Words by Glenn Robertson and Brenton Brown-Labels: No Pit Stops
the story ends like this;
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