No one lives long on this earth without facing the disappointment of unfulfilled dreams. In the book of Ruth, Naomi went into Moab with her husband and two sons, dreaming of one day returning with them to Canaan. Instead, she returned a widow having buried her husband and sons in Moab. Naomi didn't have a super attitude about these losses. In fact, she changed her name to Mara which means "bitter" (Ruth 1:20), and blamed God for her misfortune: "The Lord has afflicted me; the
Almighty has brought misfortune upon me." (Ruth 1:21)
It takes spiritual eyes to see life's disappointments in the eternal scheme of things. This is not always my first default when some circumstance makes me blue. While I depend on the tenderness and comfort of a sympathetic God, I don't want to insult him by over-grieving things that are really of little significance. They can just seem so big in the moment, but I never want to change my name to Mara!
David said, "The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing...." (Psalm 23:1) When I take account of my broken dreams I can be tempted to say, "I lack, I lack!" But to each loss on my list, God would reply from a heavenly perspective: "Thats nothing!" It makes me smile and calls me to a way of thinking that would be foreign to me without the Bible. Because now I know that God has "graciously given me all things!" (Romans 8:32)
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