There was a loud smashing sound of a windscreen, and then all was still. The next thing I knew, two very strange uniformed aliens were leaning into the "now open" cockpit of my transport vehicle and were questioning me, "You all right?". I lifted my hand up to the right side of my head only to pull it away moistened by the oozing of blood flowing from a gash just above my right ear.
One of the aliens seeing this sat quickly to the ground with his head in his hands, the other tried his best to keep talking with me as if I was in grave danger of leaving the planet. (All I was trying to do was go for an interview at UnPaServices ... and this incident had to be some sort of cruel turn of events, some sort of crass experiment, a trial and a proving to stretch me beyond my experience.) I did fall back into the darkness only to awake in a small dimly lit room with my head bound in a strange turban-like wrap. And ... now there were three uniformed aliens speaking as if I wasn't there - trying to determine my fate: "What are we going to do with him?".
I was released the same evening into the custody of a friend. Although, I was leaving the WindSwept City ... I was jobless, near mortally wounded and my transport vehicle had to be left behind at the mercy of the uniformed Aliens. As for my future, I now had to face the music of those who were depending on my provision. Oh if only I could fly away... Today I can look back on this event and see how strategic it was to lead me to where I am today.
Psalm 139: 9,10 - "If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; even there shall Thy hand lead me and Thy right hand shall hold me."
Pain, loss, and sickness can be very isolating events. Did you ever notice that we try to avoid sharing in the pain of others? Why? Reflexively, we may not want others to be around us when we face traumatic events of life? Why? There is distance created with pain, loss and illness that seems to scatter broken love in so many directions the participants of the intersection don't quite know where to turn, what to say, or what to do. {Remember the followers of Christ during and after the Crucifixion? ... the dimensions of separation were devastatingly amazing}.
Listen to Psalm 139 verse 9 from THIS imagination vantage point: "Oh no, here comes the dawn! I will run as fast as I can to find the border of this blanket of light and pull it over me. If that doesn't hide my pain, I will race across the sea and dive into the depths of its darkness so no one sees me as I am" ... OR ... "If I could lift up the darkness long enough to slip under the edges of the dawn along the uttermost boarders of the bottomless and endless sea to hide my invalid existence while caught in this cruel experiment."
Verse 10 reveals the reality of GOD WITH US in the events that make us want to run and hide: "Still I would find your protective hand leading my every step, and the faithful strength of your right hand holding me secure." "God, You never leave Your kids, You never abandon them even when they seek their own abandonment."
The soul of man has the innate ability, because of the Fall, to imagine overwhelmingly negative and toxic things if given the chance. For so many times, in our moments of fear and pain, we want to escape in such a way that hopefully everyone one would search for us, but we seem to coddle the fear that no one would miss us or care that we are gone. Admit it ...if we have not had this moment of disappointment in our lives, we will. But in that moment ... that moment tempting us to give up ... we need strong truth from our God to sustain us.
1 Corinthians 10:13 (An expanded translation) "The temptation, the event that feels like a cruel experiment to prove and test us; though attempting to completely conquer us, this unnerving experience is common occurrence among all mankind. BUT GOD ... is complete in His faithfulness to us in those seemingly cruel experimental moments, HE WILL NOT PUSH US BEYOND OUR momentary POWER TO SUSTAIN ... because with the moment of testing HE WILL PROVIDE an egress, a way out, an exit that we will be strengthened to bear up under the event and carry it strategically into our future."
God loves us so much that our pain and suffering, though common to men, ... is a portal to our greater potential to know him more intimately and to be loved by Him more openly in the future. OH How He loves you and me. He is leading and holding ... He is our Egress (No matter what the Aliens in the dimly lit room decide to do with us.)
HLFA,
Jeff
