I adjusted a long time ago to the reality that emotions, including my own, can ride the proverbial roller coaster, usually a reference to how our emotions speak to us about the ups and downs of life. And with roller coaster emotions, the thinking, contemplating, or experiences they reflect, are distinct and clearly identifiable, allowing me to address any one set of causative experiences, identifying the nuances of what is happening, adjusting my thinking and perspective, recognizing what I can change, and what I can’t, and especially as a believer, bringing it all before God, asking Him to do what I can’t do, and to give His wisdom, leading and provision for the need it all identifies, while the intensity of the roller coaster lessens, and the ride can become much more enjoyable.
In contrast however to a roller coaster, an ordinary, or somewhat ordinary, blender, can do far more than just take us on a ride. It can mix, whip, crumble, extract juices, pulverize, shred, mash, remove the initial identity, create flavors and textures that don’t even resemble what was originally tossed into the blender. And while being on an emotional roller coaster is difficult, being IN the blender can negate discernment, create feeling and emotional senses that distort thinking, and even put my God in the shadows. Where does my thinking need to change? I can’t change what is happening, but, how do I respond? I know I am a believer, and I have known the faithfulness of my God, but my usual compulsion to pursue Him, to hear from Him, to cry out for the help only He can give, to respond to Him, seems crippled and mashed up in the muck inside the blender.
I teach biblical truth and one setting in which I help others learn the biblical truth that can help them walk forward when they are riding the roller coaster, or they are limp in the blender, is in GriefShare, a grief support program for those who have lost a loved one. One of the simplest, but life changing admonitions, GriefShare gives is – Keep hurting. Keep trusting. Don’t quit. Faith is simply choosing God, intentionally, with utter dependence, even when we cannot sense His presence. When I keep hurting, especially when the hurt isn’t easily identifiable, I stay with it until identification begins to become possible. And I start giving as much as I know about myself to as much as I know about God. And I keep choosing God, even though I still don’t understand and I don’t fully perceive the path I need to walk, but I walk forward one step at a time, when I know what that step should be, and the possibility of that knowledge may only come from God. Don’t quit.
In church, we’ve been singing the song, I Speak Jesus. Some of the words that speak especially to my own heart ..... There is peace within Your presence ... there is hope and there is freedom ... Cause Your name is power, Your name is healing, Your name is life ... I just want to speak the name of Jesus over fear and all anxiety to every soul held captive by depression, I speak Jesus. ... Break every stronghold. Shine through the shadows. Burn like the fire. ... Jesus in the darkness over every enemy ......
Don’t quit.
–Bev
(Related Bible reading: Psalm 27:7-14)
