Today's Encouragement

In the Middle of Distractions

CAROLANNE MILJAVAC

“When all the Israelites saw the fire coming down and the glory of the LORD above the temple, they knelt on the pavement with their faces to the ground, and they worshiped and gave thanks to the LORD, saying, ‘He is good; his love endures forever.’” 2 Chronicles 7:3 (NIV)

We are fine. Everything is just fine.


Except that new stool you demolished when you kicked it across the room in a fit of rage over spilled ice bits that melted all over the floor and got your fresh, cozy socks dripping wet. “I can’t even have fresh socks!! Hulk smash!!!!” Why would the people in your house not bother to wipe up the wet mess? Now you’ve got to clean up your own tantrum mess and think of a lie as to how it all happened. Um … the toddler did it.

Have y’all ever felt like you are just living out your days in a season of psycho-pants level frustration? Some days I’m two autocorrects away from needing a new phone because my “toddler” smashed mine. And by toddler, I mean the emotional, full-grown woman-baby who takes over my body when I am crumbling under a molehill I’ve turned into a mountain.

I spent my first 30 years tirelessly scaling the alps of life. Mountains and mountains of doubt, fear, comparison, shame, guilt, expectations, laundry, dishes, to-do lists, anger and frustrations. I don’t know about you, but overwhelm and stress send me straight off the cliff. This is usually when I find myself mentally, physically, spiritually and emotionally unstable and incapable.

If you’ve found yourself feeling flustered, flattened and just down-and-out, I promise you’re not alone. We can get so focused on all the things that need to be done that we can’t see we are coming undone. We can’t see, hear or remember a lot of things. Like the conflict we are about to step right into, the whisper of God’s voice trying to provide guidance, and where on earth we put those car keys dangling in our hand.

We like to think, we’ve got this, we are strong, we can do it ourselves, because that’s what the world is preaching at us. But I’m over here considering that just maybe the world is wrong.

Motivational memes on Facebook won’t settle a mind that has wandered from the truth of the Lord. The enemy wants us to think we can do it all ourselves, because he knows we can’t. He knows when you’re tired (like newborn-baby-won’t-sleep-more-than-5-minutes tired), you’ll be too delirious to discern. He knows that when you’re distracted, you won’t notice the right way to turn. He knows when the sounds of your chains drown out God’s whispering voice, your flesh won’t make the right choice. Have you been so overwhelmed you couldn’t see his schemes? (Slowly raising my hand.) Yep, that’s me. Whoopsies.

Thank goodness we have access to a never-ending peace, love and joy supplier. Sure, we can handle our stress with booze, food or toddler-tantrum fits. But the drinks run dry, mint-flavor Tums can get expensive, and the enraged stool-smash is only satisfying for five … OK … 20 seconds.

Second Chronicles 7:3a says, “When the Israelites saw … the glory of the LORD … they knelt on the pavement with their faces to the ground, and they worshiped and gave thanks to the LORD …”

Have you been too distracted to see God’s glory? Sometimes the reason for our struggling season is that we need to be humbled enough to see Him. When the enemy has stripped me of my sanity, God shows up and shows off.

That is what’s so jump-up-and-down exhilarating about being a child of God. Every scheme of the enemy only brings us that much closer to realizing who we belong to. When he breaks us, God can finally be the strength in our weakness. Oddly enough, when we are broken, our knees hit the pavement and our faces rest on the ground where His voice is the only sound. God’s peace never runs out. He is good. His love endures forever!