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So they put away the foreign gods from among them and served the Lord, and he became impatient over the misery of Israel.
Judges 10:16
REFLECTION
I’m pretty grateful for God’s impatience with misery.
You look at the history of his people and it parallels the path of the addict.
Over and over, we return to doing the stupid stuff that brings pain, discontent, and heartache.
Over and over, we ask for forgiveness, making promises and plans to be different.
Over and over, we are good for a while, but our reliance fades. We start running the show again. We return to the downward spiral.
We have an inability to let go. We desire relief more than we allow God into our lives to actually change us.
We desire immediacy in our remedies and so we let the frustration of slow recovery feed our desire for temporary control of our lives again.
Lucky for us God doesn’t give up. Not on the first time, not on the hundredth. Not when we first start drinking, not when we relapse.
Constancy is his specialty not ours.
We begin to strive toward it in earnest once we get a glimpse of the peace of surrender, but it is in our failings that we beat ourselves into the willingness to try a new way of life.
Is this a hall pass? No. It’s a reminder of His goodness and of our need for it.
When my children act up, I don’t disown them. I draw them close, I forgive them, I teach them, and I encourage them to change by showing them how.
It doesn’t cure them; they’ll have to actually change their behavior.
It doesn’t make the wrong right. But there’s no limit to grace either.
God, thank you for many chances.
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