Every article and every news story leads me to the same conclusion, we need to brace ourselves for bad things.
I feel this empty, dark, looming heaviness that just hangs in the air after listening to the endless voices of economic experts, business forecasters and media pundits, all saying the same thing, the world is doomed!
Do you ever feel like all you can do is brace yourself?
I go to the store, any store, they are all the same; the shelves look empty, the prices are up (and not by just a little) and what is on the shelf is a mess. So I see the evidence. It's in plain sight. It's tough right now. I hear reports of shortages on fuel, food and the rest of it because of unrest and war. The question every night on the news is: Which world leader is going to do the next terrible thing? I feel myself tighten up, worry begins to set in and then I start thinking about all the ways I can brace myself and be ready for what seems to be an inevitable impact and disaster. Not just for me but my family and the people around me.
Then just this morning another thought comes, another voice breaks in. It's that still quiet voice saying brace yourself for blessing.
"Brace yourself for blessing?", I ask rhetorically.
I sit with that for a moment and repeat it in my mind. The first question pops into my head, what in the world does that mean? I sit with that question some more but I don't sit with it alone for long, instead I joined in the conversation that God began with me when he said to my heart “brace yourself for blessing”. So I asked him “God what are you saying and what does that mean?”.
What God began to stir in me was that we should never expect that we are going to be left alone. He has promised to never leave us or forsake us. He began showing me that all of the times that He has been faithful, all the terrible personal things that happen in one’s life. We have faced financial disasters, horrible medical news, but there He began reminding me that there has always been blessing especially in those tough times.
A memory I visit often during times of financial struggle is one from early on in my marriage.
My husband, Steve, and I had peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for every meal for 3 weeks.
We literally had no money, none! I remember looking for change to put gas in my car right before payday so I could get to work. We knew it was a relatively short lived financial crisis and with a few catch up paychecks we would be ok, but it was still tough!
My grandma Ruth stopped by our place unannounced during this time and while getting her a glass of water from the pitcher in the refrigerator, she could see that there was nothing in there. Concern and worry came across her face as she began to ask questions about how we were and if we needed anything. I quickly began painting a much rosier picture than what the situation was, but I have always been one to say “I’m fine, we’re fine, everything is fine.” Well it was one to many “I’m fine’s” and she knew that wasn't really how things were.
My grandmother could have easily written a check or gone into her wallet to fix the problem for us, but as generous as she was, she knew better. Grandma Ruth knew the Lord and she had also seen tough times in her life, producing Godly wisdom in her. The look of worry began to leave her face and she very wisely told me “I know this is hard to imagine but you will look back on this time and it will be one of your fondest memories and one of the best times of your life”. She said it with kindness and gentleness and with all the wisdom of a woman who had faced even worse financial situations than mine. She had lived through WWII and grew up in a very modest home, to say the very least.
Now when she said it I must admit, I couldn't really imagine that one day
this would be one of the fondest memories of my life, but you know what?
She was right.
Time after time after time that we have faced what looked like financial disaster, and time after time I go back to that season when all we could eat was PBJ’s for weeks on end, and I say to myself or to my husband “well we aren't only eating peanut butter and jelly yet, we’re fine,” and I mean it.
The reality is that this particular difficult and challenging time in our lives framed a perspective for us and prepared us for future tough times which are inevitable and that has been a blessing in some way that only God could orchestrate.
That was one of the many memories God showed me during our chat this morning. And reflecting on all of them, I realized that over the years when I have braced myself for disaster I really should have been bracing myself for blessing.
He is working in all of it!
How He is working in my life is likely different from how He is working in yours, but He is at work!
Something I have concluded is that when "the thing you want fixed" doesn't get fixed, you get hindsight and eventually see where He was teaching you how to brace yourself for the blessing. The blessing often is in being exactly where you are (though you may not like it there) and expectantly knowing that God is with you. Even if it produces pithy taglines during tough conversation’s like “at least we aren't eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches yet!”.
We are blessed.
So brace yourself for blessing this season.
It will be all around you. It may be disguised as something difficult, or not quite how you imagined it, or maybe it will come in the form of less under the tree but more from your heart. I don't know what it looks like but what I do know is God wants us to brace ourselves for His blessing. And so today begins a new outlook for me, and I hope maybe for you-- when the feeling of “I need to brace myself” begins to come over me, I will be reminded that God wants me to be braced for His blessing.