As we look forward to Spring planting and yard work in this area of the country, we frequently find our plans frustrated by endless rains and storms. Struggling, I’ve managed to plant perennials and some annuals and to get most of the yard and gardens mowed and trimmed once; but days of rain and more rain are making it difficult to keep ahead of the green growth.
Often in life, we do find a decided gap between the expectation and the outcome, between the dream and reality, between the desire for righteous goodness and the frailty of human nature. In this gap, which is the shortfall of worthy goals and plans, we experience pain and a sense of burden.
Young people going into the workplace for the first time with high ideals and worthy ambitions find situations that are less than desirable. Even in the most idealistic and dedicated professions, standards and actual practice can clash brutally for the idealistic youth. Real issues of morality, truth, and right goodness confront the young persons, and they must make choices that can influence their whole life.
Churches, charitable organizations, missions projects, and even medical services struggle with this difference between the excellent standard and the actual practice. Young people going into Christian service are occasionally shocked by the difference between Biblical teaching and the compromise with seeming necessity.
In this gap between the ideal and the real, good and evil, hope and despair lies the love of God, the hope of reconciliation through Christ Jesus our Lord. God knows and understands these challenging shortfalls; Jesus daily lived with this experience. I think faith, love, and prayer along with steady Bible guidance can help each of us to handle the shortfalls with understanding, maturity, and wisdom.
As we walk with Jesus as Lord and Master, I think we find the burden lessens, eased by his love, compassion, understanding, and comfort. The pain becomes manageable, and while we should not become callused or indifferent, a new level of understanding and awareness gives us insight and practical experience. With faith in God, the example of Jesus, the guidance of the Holy Spirit, we find the burden transformed by compassionate support and hope. The pain becomes infused with the light of His love and the warmth of his forgiveness, grace, blessing, and peace.
…..Mary-Ellen Grisham (meginrose@gmail.com) by way of Eternal Ink (eternal_ink@associate.com) and “Christian Voices” (www.ChristianVoicesWorldwide.net)
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