Seeking an Ocassion

Some things are just too hard to understand.

But that doesn't mean there is no reason.

My eldest daughter has been a grief to us for the past decade. Her rebellion against everything that is good and right seems so pointless. Why, God?

As I wrestled in prayer over her once again, I thought of the adorable little princess she once was. The birthday parties. The cuddling. The talks about life. The ice skating lessons and braces.

And now...

I didn't know then, but God did.

He knew. He watched us love her and raise her and infuse her with truth...and he knew. He already knew where this was going. How could he do that to us? Why has he allowed this?

And then I remembered another son who rebelled against his family and his God. Knowing it was strictly forbidden, he barged into Hedonism and found a wanton woman that would satisfy his lust. "Get her for me!" he ordered his poor, distraught father.

His parents tried everything: pleading, commanding, explaining, forbidding. No use. His headlong race to destruction could not be stopped by an atomic blast.

I understand. I've been there. But the next verse shows us a different slant to the story of Samson. Judges 14:4 says, "His father did not know that this was of the Lord, for He was seeking an occasion against the Philistines."

Really? This was of the Lord? Samson choosing evil was of the Lord?

God used this story to show me something that helps make sense of a parent's worst nightmare. Sometimes he uses a person's own willfulness to accomplish his purposes. His purposes rarely look like ours. That's why he tells us to trust him.

My purposes would have included a grown daughter who loved and served the Lord with all her heart. How could that not be of God?

But he has plans for us, for her, that I do not know. He is allowing her to expend herself in wickedness because he is "seeking an occasion." He can use what she's doing now to bring about more good than if she was behaving herself.

Isn't that an amazing thought?

As I trust him with her, with me, and let him use this for good in my life, He is accomplishing far more through me than if had I not had to go through this. He is using what I'm learning in the lives of many people.

The message of betrayal, suffering, and forgiveness is going farther than the message of peace I would have chosen. I use the pain from this situation nearly every day to impact someone else. People are being saved and lives are being restored because of what he has called me to do as a counselor.

The message my daughter will share when she at last comes "to the end of herself" will be farther-reaching than if she had never strayed. As backward as it seems to us, God likes to use evil to bring about good when we take our hands off and let him.

There are times when an evil choice from a dark heart is "of the Lord."

Is there a situation in your life that seems so wrong it can never be made right?

Maybe God is "seeking an occasion" to bring beauty from ashes, turn darkness into light, and destroy the very evil that now appears to be in charge.

Maybe rather than a tragic mistake, your situation is exactly as God wants it to be because he is "seeking an occasion."

Don't get in his way.

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The Saddest Phrase

What's the saddest thing you've ever heard?

Maybe the death of a child. A couple divorcing after 50 years.

A mother running away from her family.

Tragedy seems endless and terrible things happened in Bible times, too: murders, idol worship, infanticide, adultery...

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Some things don't change much.

But one phrase in the Old Testament is startling in its hopelessness

and in its relevant application today.

This phrase refers to Samson after he'd been tricked by Delilah

and lost his strength.

Judges 16 reports that he said: "I will go out as at other times and shake myself free.

"But he did not know that the LORD had departed from him."

He'd flirted with the enemy and lost---

and he didn't even know it.

As a counselor, I encounter Christians who are engulfed by problems God never intended them to have. They pray, read their Bibles, and frantically run through their lists of Christian practices in hopes that something will help.

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Nothing does. Because they do not realize that the power of the Lord has departed from them.

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When we give ourselves over to sin, to the world, to our natural inclinations little by little, we can fool ourselves for quite a while. "I can handle it." "It's just a little white lie." "I'm not hurting anybody." We dance on the edge, self-confidence replacing the God-reliance we once knew.

And then suddenly we're falling. Out of control, our world shatters and we scream for help, fully expecting God to deliver us as he has in the past.

And nothing happens.

Why?

It's not a race to see who can be the most holy, who can keep the commandments, or who won the gold star in church attendance. God doesn't keep a tally sheet, marking you off for every slip-up until he finally shakes his head, slaps the book shut, and says, "That's it for her. She's used up her grace for the year. C'mon, Holy Spirit, we're finished here."

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It's a choice made by the human heart, just as Samson made the choice when he allowed God's source of strength to be shorn off. We're the ones who cut ourselves off from God's power by flirting with the enemy. We no longer have unrestricted access to His help 24/7. God is still available--but now it's by appointment only.

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The good news is that Samson wasn't finished. He still had time to regain that strength, but he never became all God intended him to be. God still used him to do great things, but it was done in agony and heartbreak rather than the victory and joy God planned.

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God isn't finished with you either. As my clients are learning, it's never too late for God to turn something tragic into something beautiful, when you leave the results with him.

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Have you ever thought of it that way? If you're facing continual defeat, maybe it's time for a checkup. Has the spirit of God departed from you--and you never knew it?

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