Over Coffee

I recently had coffee with a young woman in the "decision" years.  You know, when you go to college, decide what you want to do with the rest of your life.  We meet regularly to talk ... over coffee.  We meet every week and every week we resume the conversation.  "How did this work?"  "What new thing did you discover?"  "What did you learn?"

My 20-year-old friend made a comment that keeps ping-ponging itself around in my head.  "I hate it when people say once you know Jesus your life will be great.  It's not great."  Truth spoken over coffee.  Life is not always great ... even with Jesus.

Sinks clog.  Parents gripe.  Cars crash.  Friends hurt.  Jobs get lost.  Feelings get stuffed.  Expectations go unmet.

I validated her point.  "The Church" often makes a blank statement that Jesus will make everything ... great.  In their enthusiasm to promote an inexplicable relationship, they exaggerate the truth.  Take one look at any real human that words have described in the pages of a book called the Bible and my point is made.  Old women were asked to bear children.  Old men were asked to confront kings.  Young men were told to fight.  Harlots asked to trust.  Thieves asked to give back.  Those are not great circumstances.

One look back in my 45 years on planet earth and I come short of truly "great" life experiences.  Instead, there is loosing a parent, a child, a job, a friend.  There is broken cars, limbs and dreams.  There are plenty of unpaid bills, unclaimed laundry and undone days.  The "great" is scattered sparsely among the mundane.

However ... and I love the word however ... especially when it's followed by lots of dot, dot, dots ... HOWEVER ... in the middle of "ungreat" there is something even greater!  My circumstances don't limit Jesus' presence in my life.  Right smack in the middle of ungreat there is One greater than great who shatters my reality with His unseen greatness!  Now that, my friend, is a lot of GREAT!

In my seasons of normal, mundane, hurt, pain, and ordinary ... I have the advantage of knowing that through my choice to surrender my life to One greater than myself ... my life is infused with hope, love, and peace.

Right now, I have no answers for my life.  I know that the One who plans my life has given me the agenda to simply rest, in the middle of unrest, unplanned and the unknown.  If I try to figure out things on my own I am strangely undone and wildly frantic.  Jesus, however, has given me peace.  This does not come from me.  This comes from the One who has earnestly taken what I've given Him ... my heart.  Because I know I can trust Him with my heart ... I am at peace.

Over coffee this week, I will continue to validate my friend.  No, dear girl, Jesus doesn't make things great.  Jesus does do great things in the middle of ordinary life.  In fact, He does better than great!

Sipping coffee,
christina