God Interrupts Barnes says
I am reading “When God Interrupts, Barnes talks about being born again. He talks about losing everything but the Savior.. Eventually, I would have to give them back to the Creator. To be born again is to discover ourselves as infants in the gracious arms of God. There is noting we can do to make God love us more.There is nothing we can do to make him love us less.
Some of us spend most of our lives praying that God will answer a specific prayer. After a while we get so used to living without the thing we crave that the craving itself turns into our constant companion. Interesting….
Gods intervention would terrify us. We have adjusted to the harshness of life. We have learned that as long as life isn’t tragic, we can tolerate the fact that it will be vaguely dissatisfying. When God does come, we ponder. We are perplexed. Those are great words. They signal the beginning of a mysterious intrusion. He talks of Mary. She played by the rules. She was a virgin and by rights she should have been allowed to pursue ordinary dreams. But what we have coming to us by rights is exactly what God overlooks when he decides to give us his favor, his grace.
A loved one dies way to soon. These interruptions proclaim that life is not what we had hoped for. It isn’t even what we had settled for. God has interrupted our ordinary expectations, as cherished as they were, to conceive something. We can’t manage it. We can’t even understand it. All we can do is receive it. Because if God has conceived this thing, then it is holy, and it will save our lives.
The introduction of Hebrews in the Message says “But religion — the well intentioned efforts we make to “get it all together” for God –can very well get in the way of what God is doing for us.”
There is lots to think about here. Our disappointments that we cling too. I know God doesn’t allow anything to happen, without using it is some way for His good. So in this lonely time after a loss, I want to focus, ponder and be perplexed and be watchful of what God is doing. Linda and I spent some time in 1000 Gifts. We both learned that as we go through life, it does help to see the gifts that are given. Some gifts that I am seeing are new relationships being formed.
Thank you God.
