Treasures In Hard Times

Today has been precious for me. I know that if my mom were reading this she would be hoping that I'd announce we had a great day lacking all fit throwing, defiance, tantruming, lying, wall kicking, etc., etc., etc. Moms always hope for the best for their daughters in the tough seasons of life. I am learning, though that God's best looks uniquely different than I once thought. Through hard times He is refining my understanding of His goodness, sovereignty, grace, mercy, and love. Were it not for these refining fires of tribulation I would not be uncovering God's truths for me and so I consider these truths to be treasures in hard times. This morning I read the following passage from Luke 12:13-21:

Someone in the crowd said to him, "Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me." But he said to him, "Man, who made me a judge or arbitrator over you?" And he said to them, "Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions." And he told them a parable, saying, "The land of a rich man produced plentifully, and he thought to himself, 'What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?' And he said, 'I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.' But God said to him, 'Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?' So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God."

I am learning so much about my expectations for our family and about unconditional love. It is a precious thing that God did not leave me with my beautiful and heady notion of adoption and orphan care having the "American dream adoptive family", but let me taste a bit more richly what He has truly done for us. In parenting children from a hurt past I can see a beautiful child, able to embrace and accept love, desiring to be taught and to grow, yet sometimes so very unwilling, with places in the heart so very ugly, selfish and sinful. And suddenly I realize the same is true about me. I am that hurt child desiring God's love, filled with ugly, selfish and sinful places in my heart, places that might have overtaken me if not for the daily treasure of Christ in these hard times.

You see, I have learned that my treasure is not a beautiful family, free from the flaws caused by past trauma. I am learning to love and embrace those hurts and flaws, to accept them and allow for the hiccups in our routine caused by a regularly tantruming big kid. And I have been able to see that God's goodness is not limited to things that the world sees as good. His blessing for us is His presence in the midst of trouble, not the absence of trouble itself or the presence of earthly abundance. God, Himself, is the treasure - and His transforming work in our hearts is the tangible change in seeking Him above earthly treasures. I was stuck this morning reading and re-reading the last two verses of the above passage as I contemplated, "'The things you have prepared, whose will they be?' So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God."

These hard times hold precious treasures of drawing near to God, depending on Him and learning to trust Him. I have a dear friend on the other side of the country whom I have never met, but who has poured into me over the past several years, encouraging me and sharing her wisdom of older child adoption from personal experience. This morning she encouraged me and added more treasures to my day in these comments about living through hard times. I hope you are also blessed by her words.

We often hear people express their delight with the miracles in their lives by saying, "It was a God thing." While that is true, I believe it gives us a very incomplete, distorted and inaccurate view of the way God moves and acts in our lives. It dismisses His providence in that all things in our lives are from His loving and gracious hand, and all things from Him are good! It is our earthbound mentality and perspective that has quantified events in our lives as good vs. bad. Because we do that, we confine ourselves and limit our ability to see that even the hard things (notice I didn't say bad things) are good and from Him for our good and His ultimate glory.

God's providence is perfect and His hesed is always present no matter the circumstances of our lives. We will never fail if we keep a heavenly perspective on our earthly trials. We need to learn that those moments are likewise "a God thing" and always trust that He is faithful to complete His perfect plan in our lives.

Rest in His comfort and His care and grasp firmly to His hand to sustain you - even when the life is being sucked out of you. You are far from a failure, and I know that feeling that tells you that you are. In the fog of strife, you're just having a hard time seeing all of the successes and miracles unfolding before you. Fix your gaze on that which matters eternally, and soak up the God-things going on all around you in this glorious struggle.

-Robin

What my dear friend shared with me later and what I am learning daily is that the ugly, hard and painful things are a part of beautiful, providential blessings, and we need to keep an eternal perspective. I would not trade these treasures in hard times for the fools gold (self-serving superficial idols) I once held dear during my times of ease and security.