It's Not About Me - Max Lucado [12]
What if we took the same attitude toward life? What if we saw our tough times as a grain of sand scarcely worthy of contrast with the forever dunes?
What if the woman who stopped me the other day would do that? She spoke of seventeen years of a bad marriage. His mistakes, her mistakes. His drinking, her impatience. And now she wants out. After all, her life is blitzing past. If she is going to live, she’d best get busy! Besides, who can assure her that the marriage will work? How does she know that she’s not in for two more decades of tough times? She doesn’t.
“All about me,” counsel says.“Life is short—get out.”
God’s wisdom, however, says, “Life is short—stay in.”
The brevity of life grants power to abide, not an excuse to bail. Fleeting days don’t justify fleeing problems. Fleeting days strengthen us to endure problems. Will your problems pass? No guarantee they will. Will your pain cease? Perhaps. Perhaps not. But heaven gives this promise: “our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory” (2 Corinthians 4:17 NKJV).
The words “weight of glory” conjure up images of the ancient pan scale. Remember the blindfolded lady of justice? She holds a pan scale—two pans, one on either side of the needle. The weight of a purchase would be determined by placing weights on one side and the purchase on the other.
THE BREVITY OF LIFE
GRANTS POWER TO ABIDE,
NOT AN EXCUSE TO BAIL.
God does the same with your struggles. On one side he stacks all your burdens. Famines. Firings. Parents who forgot you. Bosses who ignored you. Bad breaks, bad health, bad days. Stack them up, and watch one side of the pan scale plummet.
Now witness God’s response. Does he remove them? Eliminate the burdens? No, rather than take them, he offsets them. He places an eternal weight of glory on the other side. Endless joy. Measureless peace. An eternity of him. Watch what happens as he sets eternity on your scale.
Everything changes! The burdens lift.The heavy becomes light when weighed against eternity. If life is “just a moment,” can’t we endure any challenge for a moment?
We can be sick for just a moment.
We can be lonely for just a moment.
We can be persecuted for just a moment.
We can struggle for just a moment.
Can’t we?
Can’t we wait for our peace? It’s not about us anyway. And it’s certainly not about now.
CHAPTER SIX
HIS UNCHANGING HAND
6
1966. Lyndon Johnson was president.The voices of Goldwater and Dirksen dominated the Senate.Watergate was a D.C. apartment building, and the best known Bush was the one that spoke to Moses.Vietnam rumbled. Hippies rocked.Woodstock was a dairy farm, and the Lucados were moving into a new home.
LBJ soon moved back to Texas, and Watergate snakebit Nixon. Goldwater and Dirksen stepped down, and the Bushes stepped up. Vietnam, hippies, and Woodstock faded like tie-dyed T-shirts, but the Lucado family stayed in that yellow-brick house. For thirty-five years we stayed.
The Beatles came and went. The economy rose and fell and rose again. Much changed, but there was always a Lucado living in the three-bedroom house just off Avenue G.
Until today. As I write, movers load three decades of family life into a truck. The mailman is peeling “Lucado” off the mailbox and stenciling on “Hernandez.”
The vacating was bound to happen. It had to happen. But it’s hard to see it happen. Change, like taxes, is necessary but unwelcome.
Change? a few of you are thinking. You want to talk about change? Let me tell you about change ...
Let me tell you about my changing body—Chemotherapists treat my body like a pincushion.
My changing family—We’re “Surprise! Pregnant.” I’ll wear maternity clothes to the high school graduation of my firstborn.
The changing economy—If my investments don’t improve, I’ll spend my retirement eating macaroni and cheese.
Our changing business