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The Marker Cap
By Hillary-Beth Koenig
"The
lid on this marker is hard to get back on, and it's even hard for me,
and I'm a lot bigger than you," I told a little 2 and a half year old.
She laughed and said, "Yeah!"
I
still felt bad, because she is a little disabled, and I didn't want her
to think it was her lacking. So, I said, "It's just hard to get back on
so it's not just you" and she got real serious and said, "Why?"
I didn't know why... what did she hear when I said that? So I just told her, "Because it is so tight, too tight."
Sometimes I feel like life is like getting that marker cap back on.
I can try several different ways, and I still don't have the strength to do it on my own.
I
watched as this little girl looked inside the marker cap to make sure
it was the right end she was trying. See, she understood a lot about how
it was supposed to work.
Sometimes I think I get life.
But then the cap won't go on still yet.
The only one who can do it, is Christ!
Here's
a good example from a sermon I just listened to. The pastor was talking
about, "How do I get God's acceptance and approval? How do I became
clean before God?"
So
many people try to make themselves clean by themselves; they try to do
good things, in hopes of outweighing the bad things. They try to make up
rules that make them different, in hopes that they won't do bad things
to begin with. But they can never be perfect. Have you tried to be
perfect, thinking God will accept you if you are just good enough? Like
the little girl, you just aren't strong enough to keep a cap on your
life.
But God
knows this! So He's made the way through Jesus' death and resurrection.
Jesus died for our sins, and was raised back to life by God's power so
that we can live eternally with God.
What does that mean for you?
Stop trying to get the cap on, and give it to God; it's as good as done.
Keep Strong
Ever
feel like you are in your own little mess, your own little world, and
suddenly you wake up, and realize you owe an apology...to a lot of
people in your life?
The
going gets rough. But will you really give up? Galatians 6:9 encourages
us to do otherwise; it basically says, don't get tired of doing the
right thing! Because you will get the reward that comes along with doing
good!
And while the whole world has tried to tell you that there's no way some things are going to happen, and that,
"People who say that nothing's impossible have never tried to slam a revolving door,"
...well,
just imagine that revolving door get ripped off it's spinning pole and
slammed right into the ground. Because with God, all things are
possible. Mark 19:36
Only
a hardened hard will not believe. Only a hardened heart will say, some
things just aren't going to get better, some things just aren't going to
change. There's news for such hard hearts; the reality of God's work
and God's power, is a lot stronger of a reality than what we can just
see and feel.
True,
some things aren't going to change. Dead people don't generally come
back to life. A lost limb probably isn't getting replaced. A scarred
heart and memory may not get flawlessly healed. But clinging to God, who
is the author of our hope (Hebrews 12:2, as our hope is in Christ's
work on the cross), is good, while clinging to pain and anger and
bitterness and fear of really living and doubt of really knowing, is not
good. Those last things, will eat you up. That first part, will teach
you how to live fully.
The
old cliche stands. When God has brought you to it, He does bring you
through it, and you are way too blessed to let it all go. It might be
hard, but he never said it would be easy, just that He'd be with you,
and He never said it wouldn't be a mess, just that when we looked back,
it would be beautiful.
And so, ask for forgiveness for being this short-sighted.
Because sometimes you just keep on forgetting, what you've just gone through. And who you have. and Who is with you!
If God is with you, who can be against you? Romans 8:31
