Have you ever felt the heaviness of evaluating a dream or desire midway and feeling like you fall short of where you imagined you be? Did you start off the semester with high hopes only to find you are even father from them then when you began? Did you initially believe God for something amazing, but circumstances have you feeling like your desire is almost an impossible feat?
In life, we can allow ourselves to be disappointed with the process of becoming. We think life is about getting from Point A to Point B and get frustrated when that road seems to have a lot of detours or pot holes. I want to encourage you today that you will never “arrive”. That Point B will always be elusively hanging just beyond your reach. And honestly, that is exhausting.
So what are we to do? It isn’t wrong to have goals, and it certainly isn’t wrong to be striving to be better, so then what gives? What do we do when our leadership has a dispute and divides? What do we do when our hope to reach at least five more students in the semester turns into losing two? What happens when our funding falls through or a moral failure derails the team? We rejoice, that is what we do.
Sometimes we need help to refocus our gaze from the struggle and circumstances we are in to the greatness and faithfulness of Him who called us. A few weeks back I was struck by these verses in Habakkuk 3:17&18.
Though the fig tree should not blossom,
nor fruit be on the vines,
the produce of the olive fail
and the field yields no food,
the flock be cut off from the fold,
and there be no herd in the stalls,
yet I will rejoice in the Lord;
I will take joy in the God of my salvation.
Habukkuk is a prophet that is writing just before the impending invasion of the Babylonians in Jerusalem that happened around 587 BC. His writing is a cry to God that asks many hard questions. He knows that destruction is imminent and yet ends his prophecy with this exaltation.
We have a hope that is strong and sure. Although we may find ourselves in situations where struggle or conflict is all we can see, we can say, “Yet I will rejoice”. No matter what set backs or disappointments come our way, we know that His promises will most certainly come in His perfect timing (2 Peter 3:3-9).
Today be encouraged that you have a God that is bigger than your disappointments and greater than your circumstances. Today, I encourage you to rejoice right in the middle of it all!