“In this life, the feeling of satisfaction that comes when a marriage improves or a child turns back to God or an inheritance solves our financial problems or a ministry takes off often feels stronger and brings more pleasure than our experience of GOD. We are foolish to dampen that pleasure, but we are in danger of living for it, of thinking that blessings from God satisfy our souls more deeply than God Himself,” says Larry Crabb in his book The Papa Prayer. He goes on to say “The difficult truth is that relationship with God, this side of heaven, does not always feel good. Living for God, sincerely and sacrificially, does not always generate the pleasurable experience of meaning and joy. God lets us experience seasons of emptiness and futility that simply cannot be endured if our real aim is satisfaction in this life.”
When I got to work this morning, a co-worker shared with me a story from a teaching tape she had listened to on the way to work. The pastor told of a woman who wanted to be buried with a fork in her hand. The woman recalled as a little girl, how at the end of a special holiday meal, her grandma would tell her to save her fork, the best was yet to come. Things on earth will be difficult at times, but the best is yet to come. How great is that! Hold on to that hope, and save your fork!
Recent Comments