Heart Tracks Something More

"I know Whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I've entrusted to Him until that day." I Timothy 1:12....."He has planted eternity in the human heart." Ecclesiastes 3:11

We all know that there are good days, and there are bad days. It's a part of life. As long as it stays on that level, we tend to feel we can handle it all, deal with it in our own strength and ability. But what about when life goes beyond those? What happens to us in the midst of either our best or our worst days? We welcome the good and the best. Not so with the bad; never with the worst. Yet our need for Him is desperate in all of them.

I've had many good days and bad days. I can clearly remember the best ones, and will never forget the worst. Yet there is something I've found in each day regardless it's degree of "good, bad, best, or worst." It's that no matter how good or bad they may be, there remains within me a longing that says in the euphoria of the best, and the devastation of the worst, "There must be something more." In the midst of the best, we come to know that the emotional and mental high of the moment will not last and cannot sustain us. Like everything in this world, they are passing. In this fallen world, they cannot be held onto, but if we try, we can become captive to our best times, and experience deep dissatisfaction when the rest of life doesn't add up to them. That's when we experience the longing for something more. There must be something more.

It's no different in the midst of the bad and the worst, except that these times are likely to be more intense, more emotional, and they seek to hold us in an even deeper, darker captivity. In our humanity, we tend to let our good and best days run together. Not so with our worst. They deeply wound, traumatize, scar. We don't forget them. The devil seeks to keep us living in them. No matter how long ago they may have happened, he can make them seem like only moments have passed. The pain, agony, and hopelessness of that time is still happening in this time. We need to know that He is not held captive by either our best or worst days, for He doesn't live in the day, but eternity. It's where we're to live as well. He created us for it, planted it in our hearts. It's what tells us in every place, good, bad, best, worst, that there is something far greater and more than this. Whatever our "this" may be.

I remember my worst day. It was the day my wife left. I was shattered, not knowing what to do, or where to go. I left the parsonage and walked a short way up the road and entered the small graveyard that was nearby. It seemed an appropriate place. As I walked among those tombstones, the enemy used everyone of them to mock the death of my marriage and ministry. Yet in that place of death, amidst the real agony and darkness, that eternity planted in my heart called me to Himself. I was not made for death, but for His life. A tombstone would not mark my life, but an Ebenezer. He had been my help to that point. He would be my help that day, the worst day. He would be help, and hope in all the days to come, no matter how good or bad or worst they might be. I had known Whom I had believed, I would come to know Him more. I still am coming to know Him more. In that graveyard, some part of His glory touched me. My life wouldn't end there. It didn't end there. Neither need yours. Neither will yours if you truly live in the Truth of His Word and Life. Even if right now, you can only hold onto that Truth by a string.

Is that longing for something more whispering in your heart? Can you take what is shattered and lay it at His feet? Whatever the day, He lives. If we are in Christ, we live as well. All the power of this world and the death the enemy of our souls works through cannot touch us. If we are His, He will keep what we have given Him until that day, best or worst, and beyond it. He'll not leave anyone in the graveyard, held captive by it. Not on our mountaintops either. We're made for eternity....with Him. Have you entered in?

Blessings,
Pastor O