|
Join our e-mail list! |
|
Just type your e-mail address below and
press submit.
|
|
|
| |
 |
| |
The Gift of Nothing
By Shana Blunt
August 12, 2002
One
year, I received a bathroom rug as a gift. Although it wasn’t the only gift I
had received, receiving it is the only thing I really remember about that
occasion. And I remember being really mad about it. Could I use a bathroom rug?
Perhaps. But, how boring! And worst of all, it wasn’t anything close to what I
had asked for. Had I received that gift I really wanted as well as the rug, it
probably wouldn’t have stung so badly. Yes, it is the thought that counts, but
what was this giver thinking? The gift of a bathroom rug hardly says, “You are
loved.”
You
can imagine why I wasn’t so thrilled at receiving this from someone I
loved—someone I thought knew how to give much better gifts. Still, sometimes
we receive surprisingly unpleasant things from those closest to us, and it seems
to wound us in a worse way because we don’t expect it from them. This holds
even truer when we get these blows from the one who knows us better than we know
ourselves—God.
God
gives us many things. Some are things we’ve been desiring and asking for; some
are complete surprises. There are gifts that encourage, gifts that confirm,
gifts that comfort, and gifts that bring joy. All of the things given us are to
help us grow. Presents from God are always on time and always needed. Often in
the aftermath of receiving blessings from our Father, we can launch into a state
of supposed spiritual invincibility—“I will serve the Lord, no matter what
comes my way!”
And
so we shake our fists in the devil’s face, proclaiming it from the top of the
mountain, one of many mountains that we will encounter in our Christian walk.
Our faith is strong and the memories
of the struggle that led us to that mountain’s peak are fuzzy in comparison to
the victory we now feel. We are ready to encourage those around us to “fight
the good fight.” Yet before we continue our quest from glory-to-glory, there
is a necessary question that hides nothing and means everything—Will you serve
Him no matter what doesn’t come your way? What will you do with the
gift of…nothing?
If
you don’t receive that healing
you’ve prayed about for months, if your marriage doesn’t get better, if
you never get married, if the job you felt God leading you to never pans
out—do you stand before a wall of “if’s” and blame your meager progress
on God? Sometimes we don’t even know that we do it.
We shuffle through our valleys, muttering to ourselves that when this or
that changes, the rest of our Christian life can begin.
How
much time we waste trying to figure out God, or worse yet, trying to help him
out! We cut off our blessings like spoiled children who don’t receive
everything they ask for. I pouted about that bathroom rug incident for days, and
I know that I was ungrateful. I refused to see the use of the rug (a thing that
was not glamorous but could be used in everyday life; such are some of the gifts
from God). I couldn’t even recall the rest of the perfectly acceptable
presents because I focused on how much I was dissatisfied with one single gift.
I hadn’t received what I asked for, and this rug was hardly a good
replacement!
Some
of the most difficult struggles we will ever encounter are not things that
happen to us, but things that never happen to us. Certainly some places we find
ourselves are far from the fairy tales. They don’t meet our expectations at
all. Sometimes they break our hearts, hurt our pride, and make us question what
we thought we heard from God. Or
sometimes we don’t hear anything from Him. Or sometimes He gives us an answer
and it’s not what we want to hear, and so we pretend He still hasn’t spoken
yet.
Ouch.
Of
course, Job is one of the first examples that comes to mind when we want a
Biblical character to relate to in the midst of our hardships. That poor man! He
lost his family, his belongings, and his health yet he had the right perspective
through it all. In Job
13:15
we have our downtrodden hero stating one of his most famous lines, “Though
he slay me, yet will I trust in him.” Consider
how much easier it would have been for him to die! He had nothing for which to
live. Dying would almost have been a blessing at that point. Sometimes we just
want out of our situation, and maybe we have even selfishly prayed for God to
take our life. Perhaps we’ve even prayed that the rapture would hasten so that
we wouldn’t have to suffer anymore, because our pain is too great. Yet in all
our asking, we get back nothing.
Let
us not forget in the midst of these times that He has already given so much.
With all those things from God that please us, we often let those “growing
pains from God” overshadow His multitudes of goodness. Serving Him doesn’t
always require than we understand, but that we trust. In that trusting, we
cannot put our spiritual walks on “stroll” mode while we wait for what we
think we deserve. Not receiving what you ask for doesn’t mean He loves you
less. It just might be proving once again that He loves us so much more than we
deserve. Will He give you your dream job, pay off your debts, and/or patch up a
scarred relationship? Perhaps. He’s able to do all of those things and more, without your help. Still, if they don’t happen, His Word is
unchanged. Your steps are ordered whether they are joyful leaps or mournful
limping.
The
gift of nothing can be one of the most valuable things we are ever given, though
probably among the least appreciated of God’s blessings. It changes us in ways
nothing else could. And though we might not be able to understand its purpose,
we know that our lives are in the hands of a capable God who built everything
from nothing. And it must be so in our own lives.
ninetyandnine.com
ã
2001, Shana Blunt
--------
Shana Blunt
graduated from
Indiana
Bible
College
and is currently a teacher at
Calvary
Christian
Academy
in
Cincinnati
,
Ohio
. When she’s not laughing at herself, she’s still struggling with how to
make Jello. If you see her husband, tell him he’s running late. |
