Vitamins

Today’s Reading: Ezekiel 5:1-9:11

Everything here is upside down. Some of my brightest moments of Light have been while sitting (or laying) in the dark. For me, Spiritual Light is often found in physical darkness; dark moments, dark situations, dark memories. Perhaps, because light shines brighter and clearer in the dark. The stars are out in the daytime but we can’t see them at all. I can light a candle during the day but its light won’t dance across my wall the way it would at night in a dark room. God’s truth, His grace, His provision it’s there all around us all the time. But during those times of darkness, they stand out clear and bright like a lamp on a stand lights the entire room. God’s Light shines the brightest and the clearest when placed within a dark situation.

You see it’s all about perspective – ours. As a photographer perspective is critical. A perfect picture can get lost if I stand and look at it from the wrong angle. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen something I wanted to take a picture of and I’ve circled it moving my head like a flamingo ducking and bobbing to find just the right angle with just the right light for that perfect shot. I can take a picture of the exact same flower from different angles and it will look like two completely different pictures.

You see it’s all about how we choose to look at a thing that dictates how we see them. In those uncomfortable moments in life we can choose to stand in one spot take the photo and deem the situation a disaster or a failure. Or we can search for that perfect spot to take the photo from where the OK picture turns into an awesome picture. There are some pictures that are OK on the camera, but once zoomed in and cropped on the computer they become breathtaking. When I crop a photo I am literally cutting off a part of the picture I don’t want you to see. I am choosing what I want this picture to look like.

Life is exactly like that. No matter how much of the situation I try to cut away it doesn’t change the situation at all. But by cutting out and selecting to focus on my favorite parts of my circumstances I am changing my perspective on the circumstance. I can ask “Why would God do this to me!?!” and let my negative perspective fill in the blanks. OR, I can ask “God, why would You do this to me?” And then allow His positive perspective to flood over me. I can allow Him the space in my life to fill in the blanks Himself. I can ask Him to open my eyes to see His well of Living water in this desert experience.

All too often we go through this life with our physical eyes open wide and our spirit eyes shut tight. But the problem with that is that we’re not physical beings we’re spiritual beings in a physical body. Like an alien in a space suit, we don’t belong here we just live here. We’re more than mere humans, we are spirit. We are light living in the valley of darkness, freedom living in chains. We are children of the God of Light. We are the Bride of the God of freedom! So what if we are experiencing hardship in life right now? It’s not who we are and it certainly isn’t where we’re from. We are from freedom, we are from light, we are from Grace and Love and Providence. We are from God.

Our circumstances don’t dictate who we are, God does. Our sinful choices don’t dictate who we are, God does. And God says we’re forgiven so therefore we are. Jesus says “It is finished” so therefore it is. 2 Corinthians 5:17 tells us that we have been made new, so therefore we are. Satan doesn’t get to tint our circumstance with his negative perspective, at least not without our permission anyway.

When I asked myself this week “why would God want this to happen to me?” The question quickly became “why WOULDN’T God want this to happen to me?” The spiritual AND physical benefits of my “bad” situation so grossly outweighed the negatives it was overwhelming.

So don’t just ask “Why is God doing this to me”. Actually allow Him to answer it from His perspective! Remember that ALL things work together for the good of those who love the LORD (Romans 8:28). That God is love and sometimes love makes you take your vitamins, even when you don’t want to.

What vitamins, or lessons, have you taken through life’s lovely uncomfortable moments?