Comfort. Easter. No idea what to call this.

Easter's over. The day has passed, we've gone to church, come home, had a nice dinner, and now we're back to "real life" - whatever that may be. So, Easter's over. Right?

WRONG!

As long as Christ is still risen, Easter continues! We celebrate Easter every single Sunday - the Eighth Day of Creation! HE IS RISEN! We still rejoice, we still celebrate, we STILL live for Christ every day.

OK, fine, I know what people mean when they say "Easter's over". This year's occurrence of Easter Day is now several days ago, and we're on with our lives.

What does this mean?
We should fear and love God so that....wait. Sorry. Habit. :D

Although I am going back to Luther.
Look at my previous post. That one down there, called "Martin Luther's Prayers". Go ahead, I'll wait.

I want to focus on just a few words from his prayers. You'll notice the second half of each of them is identical, and I think it's because they say something so very important. First, how many times have we prayed these, and just recited the words without thinking? It's easy to do - repeating it at night, or at our evening devotion, or at the beginning of the day, or our Sunday School opening or whatever. But really look at those words for a second.

They're incredibly powerful.
Take a look at just this ONE little bit:
"For into your hands I commend myself, my body and soul and all things."

Wow.

Think about that.
With this prayer, we are telling God that we trust Him to take care of every single thing and be in charge of every single second of every single day. Leave off worrying about...well, anything, really. God will take care of it!
Granted, He doesn't always act the way we would like Him to, but then again, we're not praying for that, are we? We don't say, "for into your hands I commend myself - and make sure you do it my way," are we? No we are not.

We hear the Good News of Christ's resurrection every week, so it's (sadly) rather easy for us to forget exactly how Good this News really is! And exactly WHAT it means to us. We get distracted by the world, and our personal problems, and forget the incredible wonder of Easter. While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. If I can trust God to care for my eternal life, which is the biggest and most important thing EVER, then surely I can trust Him with the small things, all the "what-ifs" and "what happens whens" and the daily needs of my life!

And that's what I'm telling him with that prayer! I'm saying, "God, I trust you to care for me - for ALL my needs, not just the big ones. I trust you to order my life the way it should be ordered, in accordance with YOUR plan for my life. I trust that anything you give me will be far superior to that which I may have had in mind to take for myself, or that I could have achieved BY myself."

That's a powerful statement. Whenever I start to worry, or fuss about the future, or what will happen when / if this or that happens, I remember "...my body and soul AND ALL THINGS." Right. ALL things.

And, while I have no idea what that means for me, nor where I'm going (even though I'd very much like some ADVANCE NOTICE sometimes), and it can be incredibly frustrating, stressful and (occasionally) depressing to be in situations where the ONLY thing I can say is "God must have a plan," where the ONLY way I can get through it at all is to say, "Well, God, I trust that YOU, at least, can see some good in this, and I trust that YOU have a reason for this," I know that I can always trust that I will eventually see the good that God is working through me, and in me - often despite me.

My body, my soul, and all things belong to Him.
And I am comforted.

Not My Decision

We attended church with some friends this past weekend. It's always interesting to attend church at "not home" on occasion, because I get to see how other congregations (and other denominations) do things. One thing they had in the service was a "reception of people making a Decision" or something along that lines. At any rate, it was the bit in the service where you go forward if you "decide" to accept Christ as your Savior.
I've been taught that we don't "decide" any such thing. So I got to thinking about this. In the past, when I was growing up, occasionally a group would come to our neighborhood during the summer, and offer a program for a week or two in the mornings, and my mom would send us. (Now that I'm grown up, I can't say as I blame her! Those were her only "time off" during the summer - and I'm betting that's when she got stuff done. ) During those programs, they always had a "Decision Time" - same thing, really, as was in church. We'd all go real quiet and they'd explain what it was and "you should ask Jesus into your heart."
I always thought about it, and being a little kid and not really understanding the whole "I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in my Lord Jesus Christ, or come to Him", I'd sit there and ask. I never felt any different, though, and when you're 6 or 7 or 10, that's kind of a letdown. Here you've been told you'll feel a great peace, joy, love, whatever - and I never felt any different. So it was kind of disappointing.
Reflecting on that this week, though, I really thought about it. (Considering I haven't bothered with those memories in quite some time, I'm surprised I remembered it at ALL, actually, but that's neither here nor there.) And I realized that of course, the reason I never "felt" any different was because I wasn't any different. My parents had had me baptized and I've been a Child of Christ since I was an infant. NOT since I was seven, or eight, or twelve, or twenty-eight, or whatever. I absolutely did not Decide in any way, shape or form to accept Christ's salvation. And I realized something further.
There's an incredible comfort in knowing, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that I am saved. That my salvation isn't based on my feeling saved, or my mood-of-the-moment, or my "opinion", or anything on my part. It's all been handled. Care-free, worry-free, and effort-free on my part. I don't have to do or say or feel ANY particular way, and it doesn't matter. I'm still saved.

"But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."
I never really realized how comforting Romans 5:8 was before.

Always what we need, not necessarily what we want

God provides. He always does - and it's always what we need, not necessarily what we want. I have to keep reminding myself of this as I wonder about my contract. I was originally hired to the end of this year, and I'm starting to look again for work. Will I find it? Dunno. God provides. He provided this job, and a place for me to stay (well...two places, now. I'm extremely grateful to the kind woman who first invited me into her home, sight unseen, and put up with me for several months. And I am also VERY glad and thankful to my friends who have now invited me into their home to our mutual benefit.)
But, even though He provides what we need, that doesn't guarantee it will be an easy time. Being away from family and home each week, only going home on weekends...that's rough. Knowing that other people have it worse - away from family for over a year, having loved ones serving in the Middle East...that's WORSE, but knowing that others have it worse doesn't make my position any easier for me. I've never quite understood how other people (not everyone, obviously) can say, "Oh, I like to remind myself of other peoples' situations - then mine doesn't seem so bad and I can cheer up!" It doesn't work that way for me. I see other peoples' situations, then mine doesn't seem so bad...yeah, that part works. But then I don't "cheer up", really - I just think, "Geez...I must be some more kinda selfish shallow person to still feel like this is difficult when they have it so much harder." Then I feel worse, not better.

A very dear and wise friend told me, though, to remember that just because someone else has it worse / harder / whatever doesn't mean my feelings are invalid. Just because I'm not happy about my situation when someone else has it worse (and there's always someone with it worse) doesn't mean I'm selfish and shallow and I have to cheer up now. I guess what I'm looking for in that situation is "permission". If someone else has it worse, I almost feel that I'm not allowed to feel sad / depressed / anything-but-happyhappyjoyjoy. Well, the heck with that. I'm not really a happyhappyjoyjoy person, to be honest. Never have been. I'm sure that doesn't make me terribly easy to get along with, and I'm (again) grateful (and a bit puzzled, to be honest) that so many people are willing to try.

But anyway, God never said He'd make everything easy for us. Matthew 19:26 says "...with God, all things are possible", not "all things are easy" or "all things are preferable" or "everything works out the way you want it to." Faith moves mountains, but God doesn't say those mountains shift themselves around with no effort from us. GOD does the hard parts, but he's not some Great Vending Machine Santa Clause Wish Granter In The Sky, where you put in the right prayer coin, or the right ritual, or just wish hard enough and boom, we get Exactly What We Wanted! A new pony! A bike! Whirled Peas! Everyone to get along! Kumbahyah! Whoopee. Nope, not gonna happen. I firmly believe that God set up this job opportunity for me, and He wants me here, but I still had to apply for the job. The offer came out of the blue, and other circumstances surrounding the offer and eventual hiring were enough to tell me that this is where I'm supposed to be, but God never said anything about it being what I wanted, or expected, or that He'd make it easy. No, it's not what I expected, it's not really what I wanted (or especially where I wanted!) but it's where I needed to be, and where He needs me to be right now.
MY benefit from it may be just a financial one, or there may be other "Me reasons" for me to be here. It may be that the primary reason was to set me up to benefit someone else. I really don't have all the answers - but it's enough for me to know that God does. He's always working for our GOOD, even if it's not our PREFERENCE. That's tough to remember sometimes, especially when I reach to the other side of the mattress at 2am and there's nobody there.
But it is enough to get me through the 2am "nobody's there", and keep me going. I hope for something more preferable to come along, but until that time, I'm content (not happy, necessarily, but content) to be here, where he wants me, doing whatever He wants me to do.

Now...I'd PREFER to go have a chocolate-chip muffin. But...it's not good for me, so I'll have some Kashi cereal. Which, incidentally, tastes nothing like a chocolate-chip muffin.