Good morning all. Hope everyone is doing well, staying healthy mentally and physically as we have now been a year into this pandemic. Crazy to think this time last year we were buying hand sanitizer, toilet paper and disinfectant wipes like there was no tomorrow. Look at us we made it to this tomorrow! We had enough toilet paper to line every tree in our neighborhoods and have the cleanest backsides to date! All joking aside though, I know it has been a tough year. We have lost people we love, we have lived behind a mask, isolated, we have pulled more into ourselves and lost the art of conversation. We have lost human touch. The things we took for granted. Here in the south, we will bless your heart, pat your arm, hug you when the urge strikes and just are downright touchy feely in a non creepy way. We haven’t been able to do that for a whole year! We have been blessed with technology to stay in touch, binge watch TV, take out and cook in, video chats. We have so much more than all those that suffered during the spanish flu yet we struggle just the same.
I am listening to praise and worship music this morning and feeling overwhelmed yet blessed. There is a song that has 10,000 reasons in it’s title (I don’t own this music) and it made me think as usual. There are so many things we are blessed with yet sometimes we rationalize the choices we make, the reasons we act the way we do. We reason out our lives, our motives, our actions. We reason out our problems with solutions, we are so reasonable sometimes we forget the reasons we are here. If the One who created us has a purpose for us here, a reason for our existence, then why do we reason Him out of our lives? Why do we reason ourselves into a rut, into a corner?
We rationalize alot and I am guilty of that as well. We forget to think about the many blessings we have without reason. Again, I am guilty of it as well. We wake up in the morning if we are lucky, some have jobs they go to, some have the job of managing a household, some have a job of retirement and lending hands to care for parents and grandparents, some have just enough strength to get out of the bed for the day due to mental or physical infirmies. There is a reason we have another day to face and there is a blessing in each of those days. Does the routine become mundane? Does the work become physically or emotionally exhausting? Do we look at others who don’t have to work as hard and are envious? I think we all could say yes to each of these questions. How about reasons as to why we are single or married? There truly is a reason but sometimes we can’t see that when your spouse makes you mad or your bed feels like a California king of loneliness. How do we find the reasons in all of this? Well, my thought is there is a purpose and a reason for it all. Sometimes though we go head first, paving our own way and not listening to God’s reasons or His voice. We hear our own and become justified in our pride, our infidelity, in reaching out for the human cravings more than exploring the reason for this season in life. I am guilty of this, I am not to proud to admit it. How can He want me to be alone when I have so much love to give? How can there be a reason to live through divorce or failed relationships, there just can’t be a reason for this in my mind. How can He want me to be alone with the thoughts in my head and the ache in my heart? How can He want you to struggle in your marriage, your relationship, how can He make a way for us to earn a living but be too tired to put that effort into our marriages? Well maybe it is because we keep clinging to our reasons and not His. Maybe we are so busy pushing our way through like a bull in a china shop that we push His quiet voice to the side. I don’t think God sits on His throne and causes bad things to happen in our life, I don’t think that at all. But sometimes we have so many reasons of why we put other things on that throne of life that we forget the reason we are here. We forget that He is a jealous God, a just God, a merciful God and He has given us more of a purpose in this life than just to reasonably deduce the outcome.
He knows our hearts desires before it is even spoken. He knew us before we were born and He knows the outcome of our life. That should be reason enough to feel blessed and actually be in awe. The One who created this world, knitted us in our mother’s womb, who went before us, walks beside us and goes before us, is that enough reasons for us to be so very blessed? We have reasons why we build up our walls, we have reasons that we justify why we hurt people, hurt ourselves. We make reasonable arguments for our actions, we reason out our finances, our hobbies, how hard we work for our employees or for some how hard they get out of work. We have so many reasons for what we do but there are more than 10,000 reasons He keeps giving us chance after chance. So do we reasonably turn away and find one more reason to keep turning away? Or do we find a purpose in the reasons laid out before us? Sometimes, actually most times, this world makes no reasonable sense. Even more now then in my lifetime it seems. People justify their behaviors, they relish in themselves and selfishness abounds. We reason out the evils of the world and give it all more credit than they should get. The headlines report the hurt, the corrupt, the ills of the world. It is hard to believe that there is a reason for all of this but there is. It is a season of life right now. Now we get to choose the reasons we want to follow. Do we reason out God from all of this or realize the infinite number of reasons He loves us?
We all can get so overwhelmed in life, yep me again agreeing, but what if we make a choice to look at the reason of our choices, learn from the season of this choice and quit committing treason against our own hearts? We choose to embrace the reason of our life and grow. There are so many reasons we feel that we aren’t worthy of Him, some very deep seated hurts and behaviors. He gave His only Son for us, the ultimate reason, ultimate sacrifice as to why we are worthy. Society has torn us down, people have wounded us, people have isolated us. Jesus was torn down by the Pharisees, His disciples couldn’t stay awake in the garden for Him, He was wounded for our transgressions. He is the reason the veil has been torn and the reason why we have hope eternal. Let that sink in. Our earthly trials and tribulations pale in comparison to being flogged, mocked, His nail pierced hands– the reason so we could have eternal life. So no matter how we rationalize this life, for how much we argue and fight, hurt others, deny the love we have to give, He gave so much that goes beyond reason. Still feeling reasonable or feeling completely overwhelmed to realize you are a worthy and reasonable choice that He made for you?
So many things we reason out but if we started making more of the moments we have been given? What if we realize that there truly is a reason for us to be here and going through whatever battle we face? Your marriage is struggling, find a reason to love that person again. Your child is unreachable, find a reason to meet them where they are at. You have a co worker that is a sandpaper personality, find a reason to help them shine and go with the grain and not against. You are single waiting for your Boaz or your Ruth, find the reason why God is working on you and preparing you. You have lost your spouse and your life feels without purpose, find your way in this next chapter as He has a purpose and reason you will carry out His will. You grumble when the alarm goes off, you are blessed to have another day. You are running late to work, the reason may have been to spare you an accident. If we look at the reason for things in our life as blessings in that moment, then the reason for it all comes back to Him. He has a reason and purpose for each of us, we just have to put the analytical, cynical human mind to the side and open our hearts to Him, lift our arms in praise and our words reflect the Thanksgiving for the reason for this season. It is hard while we are in the trenches of life, but if we realize that we aren’t in those trenches alone, the load becomes easier and our hearts become lighter. So think about your reasons, your resolves, your blessings of where you are on this journey. Know that as we move into this holy time of Easter, He thought of you. He felt you were worthy and without a reasonable doubt He gave the ultimate sacrifice. He is worthy of praise, He is worthy of honor and glory He felt you were worthy beyond reason. More than just one reason, more than the stars in they sky and grains of sand. Be the reason someone sees Him today. Love the reason of this season and may you be blessed in the seasons to come. Stay well and stay blessed.
