(10 bonus points if you can figure out what song that is...)
Lately, everyone has been reflecting on the ends of decades. We think about the change, about the future, swap memories and blessings and losses. So in the midst of the reminiscing, it occurred to me that I've been writing devotions now for a whole decade.
The best thing about that is that God hasn't changed. The God that is here when I'm 24 was there when I was 14. He's the same God that sent the Holy Ghost when Jesus was baptized, the same God that declared, "Let there be light," and He'll be the same God when Revelation comes to pass.
No, God hasn't changed, but my perception may have. I've learned new things, lived new lessons, met new people, challenged my own ideas. So at the end of this decade, I decided to go back in a time machine and post one of my very first devotions-- however cringy it is-- and one of my newest ones (again, however cringy it is).
In all its glory, here is a devotion I initially titled: "Ugly or Beautiful, that is the question."
Have you ever known a girl that so self-absorbed, it's sickening? She has picture after picture of herself, and she's raving about how gorgeous she is. Have you ever thought about said girl, "She is SO NOT PRETTY!"
STOP RIGHT THERE!!! DO NOT GO ANY FURTHER WITH THAT THOUGHT. MAKE A U-TURN.
God made her face.
That's right, God picked out her hair, her eyes, her nose, her mouth, her ears, her everything. He put them together, and He "wove her in her mother's womb." When you make fun of her face, you're making fun of the person that designed it-- God. You're saying, "Oh, God could have done SO much better on this girl. She's ugly!" You see that? Even if you don't say those exact words-- even if you just say, "She's not very pretty,"-- you're making fun of God's work.
You may try and phrase it nicely. But inside, you know how you feel.
Don't feel guilty-- everyone sees a girl and might at first think, "She's ugly." But don't get any farther with that thought. Don't let it boil inside of you and become your permanent feeling. If you do that, you're letting the devil get a foothold. Instead, pick out one feature you like. Tell her about that! And if there's more than one, don't stop there! Tell the girl everything you like about her, and then say: "You know, you were made beautifully for God's plan for your life. You're beautiful in God's eyes, just like we all are. God made you special, and He loves you very much."
You may find that the girl, despite her putting on airs, finds herself ugly and hideous. By saying that, you're giving her a boost of confidence.
Then look at yourself.
You've probably thought, "Oh, I'm hideous! I have too many zits. My rear's too big, my hair's too stringy, I'm not skinny enough. I'm fat, I'm ugly, and boy, could I use a makeover!"
STOP RIGHT THERE!!! DO NOT GO ANY FARTHER WITH THAT THOUGHT. MAKE A U-TURN.
You are God's creation. When you degrade yourself, you degrade God.
Now, I'm not saying that I've not had these thoughts. I have. I'm sure every girl has. But the problem is, we take it too far. We're constantly in the land of self-pity, self-degradation, self-hate.
God loves you!!! He wants to wrap his arms around you and say, "You're perfect, because I designed you this way. I love you. Please, stop calling yourself names. I love you. I made you. Don't feel insecure. I made your face, your legs, your stomach, your everything. I made it, because I like it. I love your inner beauty-- that's what counts. You're made in the images of ME, your God."
That's right, people, you're made in the image of God. We're the only thing that can claim that. So don't feel bad. You're beautiful the way you are.
God made you. He loves inner beauty, and looks at the heart, while people look at appearances. But don't worry about people-- they're only temporary. God loves every part of you, inside and out. Isn't that a great feeling?
So there you have it, one of my very first devotions, ever. I was a lot more liberal in my italics/bold/underlined usage, that's for sure, but it's fun to see the heart of a fourteen-year-old girl who just wants to grow closer to God.
And that's one thing that hasn't changed, either.
It's time now to skip forward a decade. This is one of my latest devotions, which I titled: "This is Your Promised Land."
I’m sure you’ve heard this adage: “the grass is always greener on the other side.” It’s true, isn’t it? Young kids want to be older. Adults want to be kids again. Single people want to be married. Married people want to be single. People without kids want kids. People with kids...well, you get the gist.
If we could tally up the wishes of our hearts, I wonder how many years of our lives we’ve spent wanting to be at a different part of our lives. We cling to dreams or desires, and all the while, our promised land is passing us by.
This isn’t some new trend. It isn’t some “Millennial” or “Gen Z” or “Boomer” problem. No-- this yearning to live on the other side of the fence goes all the way back to Adam and Eve. Think about it! They lived in Eden-- literal perfection-- and they were still like, “Hmm...I wonder if life would be better if we ate this fruit? What are we missing by staying in the Garden?”
Things just spiraled out of control after that fateful bite. One of the most ironic moments of “the grass is always greener” comes when the Israelites were in search of the actual Promised Land. In Exodus 16, we find them bemoaning their fates...of being freed from slavery. For hundreds of years, they’d been in captivity, and when God finally rescues them, their response is basically: “Um, actually, is it okay if we go back? This whole ‘freedom’ thing isn’t for us.” They were in the desert and hungry, but they were following God. God was trying to move them towards this monumental, life-shattering blessing, and all they could think about was returning to their “comfortable” old life (remember, that old life where all their sons were slaughtered because Pharaoh feared them?). They turned their eyes away from God, His promises, and yearned for the proverbial other side of the fence (other side of the Red Sea?).
We can roll our eyes at Adam, Eve, and the Israelites all we want, but nothing’s changed in a couple thousand years. Humans have always been whiny, and the “forbidden fruit” always seems better to us than the place where God has us.
But God knew what He was doing back then, and He still knows what He’s doing today. We don’t need to fret over our stalled life, be envious of someone else’s life stage, or wallow in regret and self-pity. Perhaps what we see as a troubling time-- the very thing we wish to escape-- is actually God trying to bless us.
How, you say? How could this time in your life, when all you want to be is over there, ever be something good?
It can be good because God is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent. In His awesome, infinitesimal mind, it could be that He sees the good in this situation that we can’t. Where we see boring, mundane, and aggravating, God sees potential, a garden waiting to blossom, a period in time blooming with possibilities.
Perhaps, in this time that we hate, God is trying to teach us a lesson.
I can’t say what lesson it is. That’s between you and God. Maybe it’s to rely on Him. Maybe it’s patience, peace, kindness, love, compassion, etc. Maybe He’s teaching you that there is a “time for everything under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 3). Perhaps it’s to be patient with yourself, to follow a new path, to be bolder in life-- there are a million things that you could glean from this time that you deem useless. But what man considers inutile, God considers invaluable. He only wants us to “be still, and know that He is God” (Psalm 46:10). He only wants us to trust Him, to hear the soft whisper on our hearts.
Does that mean that we won’t move on from this land until we learn the lesson? Absolutely not. We can rush the process and ignore God’s prodding. We can fall out of God’s will-- we can even exit to our next “Promised Land” with His permission and still not learn something. I don’t think that God will withhold blessings because of our hard hearts-- but I do think that we will suffer.
We will never learn to be content. We will always search for the next: the next experience, the next dream, the next desire that, if we only had, would make us happy. If we didn’t hear the whisper, we didn’t grow. God can still teach us that exact same lesson later in life, but imagine what it would have been like to have that piece of peace earlier. Like the Israelites, we may make it to the Promised Land, but not until we’ve wandered for 40 years...and even then, we may not appreciate it fully.
I can’t lay you out a list of steps to take to be content and fulfilled in your Promised Land. That’s not my jurisdiction; thank the Lord that it belongs to Him! I can’t even tell you the lessons that you’ll learn or how to measure whether you’re content or not in your own life. I can only encourage you, push you on towards the goal. I can only help you savor the moment you’re in, close your eyes, and breathe. The presence of God is with you in whatever moment you’re in. The spirit of God is reaching down to embrace you.
One of my favorite analogies of God’s closeness to us comes in the Prince Caspian by C.S. Lewis, when Susan is struggling to trust Aslan and is listening to her fear-- like what continuous discontentment does to us. Aslan reassures her with, “Come, let me breathe on you. Forget them. Are you brave again?”
Aslan’s “breath” can represent the passing of the Holy Spirit to us. Aslan is reassuring Susan, giving her a weapon to fight past her doubt. The best part is that we as believers have this gift as well. So let God breathe over you, until you can feel secure enough to say these words firmly:
This is my Promised Land.
Seize it. Just as God was with Joshua and Caleb, He’ll help you conquer it as well. You will have peace. You will have joy. You will have the Promised Land in the here and now.
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