Toddlers

Whenever I complain to you, LORD, you are always fair.

But now I have questions about your justice.

Why is life easy for sinners? Why are they successful?

You plant them like trees; you let them prosper and produce fruit.

Yet even when they praise you, they don’t mean it.

But you know, LORD, how faithful I’ve always been, even in my thoughts.

So drag my enemies away and butcher them like sheep!                  Jeremiah 12:1-3 (CEV)

Sometimes this life is just…not good. Another word, “unfair”, comes to mind. I do not have to think about the last 10, 20, 30 years of my life and not recall situations and events that just have no “fairness” or “goodness” in them. And I see others and wonder why they do not have these trials. Why me?

Jeremiah, the prophet, is known in most Biblical circles as “the whining prophet”. The title is not without support. However, I feeling some kinship with him today! Jeremiah was unique in his reflections about his spiritual struggles with God and the trials he had to endure. Is this a reason to call him a “whiner”? I find it hard to believe that Isaiah, Daniel, Amos, Joel, or the others never had a struggle. Maybe they weren’t honest enough to record it.

I want so much to be strong in my relationship with God. I want to be so connected that doubts and questions are not part of our relationship. I want to live in God’s peace. I want to walk confidently in His trust. When I am on my knees, that is where I am. When I get up from knees and move in my own power, doubts and questions are at the forefront.

And like a newborn baby

Don’t be afraid to fall.

And remember when you walk

Sometimes we fall.

So, fall on Jesus.

Fall on Jesus.

Fall on Jesus and live.

(Untitled Hymn by Chris Rice. 2003)

I have known people who wandered for most of their lives, looking for ‘home’. As I was writing this, I acknowledged where ‘home’ is for me. It is on my knees. My mind has been brainwashed to believe that kneeling is a position of weakness. It is not. It is a position of strength. Realizing that there is much I do not know gives me more strength and power because I am, like a child, turning to my Father, asking Jesus, listening to His Spirit to tell me what is next. And God is the perfect Father. He picks me up when I stumbled. He doesn’t love me less because I do stumble. He shows me how to walk better by putting my feet in His footprints. I can always fit!

Let’s not be afraid to fall. Let’s not be afraid to say, “I don’t know”. Let us just fall on Jesus…and live.