getting my attention

something tells me He's trying to get my attention.
sometimes i wonder to myself, and i think we all do every now and then, why life has to be so hard. why can't something, anything, just come easy?
i know all the right answers, such as "what would it be worth if it came easy", or "would you value it if you didn't work for it".
but the questions still come.

i was hit twice today by Truth from the mouths of two different men.
the first was David Crowder in his book Praise Habit: finding God in sunsets and sushi:

in the desert, what is it we beg for? it seems a vicious and familiar trend of God to lead His own into wildernesses. usually, we look around and see nothing but sand while anger rises inside. we think we should be anywhere but the middle of heat and dust. the wind is harsh and stings with silt. sand is getting in our socks and dirtying our ankles as it mixes with out sweat. we always assume that the desert is not where we belong. perhaps it was too subtle, but if we would have paid attention we might have felt His hand with delicate softness take ours, and our fingers slowly interlock, and then the gentle pull away from the green grass and the mountain springs. we might have seen that we did not wander here alone...

the second set of wise words came from Les Beauchamp, a pastor i have looked up to from the moment i met him (spoken sunday morning 1/21/07):

Life is characterized by torrents.
Life is characterized by storms.
Do you know why?
We are living on a broken earth – do you know that?

and so your life will be characterized by those things.
And the sooner you get over that, the better off you’ll be.

If your life, you believe, is to be characterized by wonderful things and things never going wrong and your body never breaking down, which planet earth and the media tell you, “that’s your goal – if you eat this, if you sleep well, if you drink this, if you listen to this, if you go here – life will go well for you”

It’s not true. You can stave off the brokenness of life a little bit, but the fact of the matter is, Jesus is telling us, these are ultimate realities.

The torrents of life will come.

life lesson to be learned: trust. in His timing. His goodness. His faithfulness.

He can be trusted. test Him; He'll prove Himself, over and over again. and over again. try it, i dare you. and He'll do more than just prove Himself. He'll reveal His very heart and character to you, and show you so much love that you may just break down weeping....