Brick Walls and Bloody Fists

Uninvited guests. Guests that stay too long, are too controlling, are too expensive. That suck the energy from our being and the joy from our hearts. That plague us to the breaking point.

“Guests” may be too polite a term. “Intruders,” “usurpers,” even “cannibals” are more accurate.

These “guests” take many forms. Some hideous. Some beautiful. But at the core, they interrupt and oppose what we want.

A blinding blizzard. Chronic pain. Loss of a spouse. A deadly pandemic. Darkness of soul.

We have a choice.

We can pound our fists on the unyielding brick wall of reality. Mutilate skin and sinew and fracture every bone.

Or we can yield. Whisper, “I don’t understand, but I accept it.” Look up in faith even as our heart bows in submission.

It’s a difficult choice. Submission is agonizing. Resistance is torture.

But we need to know one thing. These two roads, the two choices, though both painful, lead to very different places. The resistant path leads to hardness of soul, like the brick wall we pound. The yielded path leads to life, gratefulness, and peace.

I know where these two paths lead (in my head, at least), but I struggle. A recent “guest” of extended illness robbed me of sleep, comfort, and a trip to New Mexico to see my grandchildren. We all have the “guest” of COVID-19 and the resultant changes.

I’m encouraging myself to yield. I invite you to join me.

As we yield, moment by moment, to “guests” old and new, we affirm that God is enough.

So then, my friends, because of God's great mercy to us I appeal to you: Offer yourselves as a living sacrifice to God, dedicated to his service and pleasing to him. This is the true worship that you should offer. Romans 12:1, GNB

What are the brick walls in your life that invite you to submit?