Skip to main content

An Insignificant Wish

No Answer
I used to look at the biggest outcasts in my school and wonder. No, I wasn't looking in a mirror, but there were times when I wondered, and wished that I were. After all, it would have been nice to be the best at something. Have you ever wondered what it would take to be, hands-down, the biggest outcast in your school?

I have, but just when I think I may be able to master it, the trends change and everything gets turned upside down. So I am caught in some place in the middle where neither cool nor outcast reside. Mocking me from both sides is my place of honor.

There is something worse than feeling like God is always punishing you. It's feeling like God doesn't think of you at all. The insignificant wish that God thought of them at all, even if it is just to be treated poorly. At least then they knew they mattered in some way.

I have often wondered if this wasn't what caused Job the most pain. He could man up and battle against the physical pain. He could even do an adequate job of expressing his feelings and emotionally purge. But through most of his trial, he endured it with a silence that drove him crazy. He felt as though he were ignored by the One Person who could make a difference.

Job 19:4-12
4 Even if I have sinned,
    that is my concern, not yours.
5 You think you’re better than I am,
    using my humiliation as evidence of my sin.
6 But it is God who has wronged me,
    capturing me in his net.[a]
7 “I cry out, ‘Help!’ but no one answers me.
    I protest, but there is no justice.
8 God has blocked my way so I cannot move.
    He has plunged my path into darkness.
9 He has stripped me of my honor
    and removed the crown from my head.
10 He has demolished me on every side, and I am finished.
    He has uprooted my hope like a fallen tree.
11 His fury burns against me;
    he counts me as an enemy.
12 His troops advance.
    They build up roads to attack me.
    They camp all around my tent.



It's making a call in your time of need and getting only that reassuring recording, letting you know your message will be received. But will it be returned? One can only hope.

I thought about ending this post with the previous paragraph. But then I was concerned that my friends might assume I had gone emo ten years after being emo was in. While the timing would be totally me, showing up tragically late for a party, instead of fashionably so, that is not the direction I am headed. 

However, I am attempting to understand the feelings of insignificance from every direction, both healthy and unhealthy. Because it is my contention that understanding how the mind works, along with the pushing and pulling of society, will lead us to recognize where our true significance lies, not with us, but in the One who made us. 

That is my insignificant wish. 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Accountable

I recently officiated a wedding. The ceremony was simple, lovely, and ended with another couple professing to keep the covenant of marriage. But it all started with a clarification...from me. At our first premarital counseling session, as I have done with every couple I have agreed to marry, I clarified a couple of matters. First, I officiate Christian weddings, where both spouses-to-be are professing Christians. I firmly believe that marriage is difficult enough, without adding disagreements about God into the mix. Second, as a minister of Jesus Christ, I believe the pastor’s role in a wedding is to represent the blessing of God on that union. So we have several sessions of premarital counseling where we discuss married life. It’s not that I have this imaginary card in my head, with a picture of me on the front and my stats on the back. (You know, like a baseball card.) Ok, I do picture cards. Pastor cards! And being a competitive guy, I want my stats to look good. The number of coupl

Patience

I am more than halfway through the last year of dropping one of my children off at school. It's my eighth grade daughter, for anyone keeping track of my family.  See, next year she will be at the high school, and her brother will drive her. He says that it's not cool for seniors to drive their freshman sister to school, but I bet it's cooler than being dropped off by your mom in a minivan.  So rather than groan about this daily responsibility, I've been reminiscing about what the drop-off line used to look like, way back in elementary school. Once our children were about halfway through their elementary years, the drop-off line became a test of patience.  Do you know which group you do not want to get caught behind in the parent drop-off line at an elementary school? The kindergartners. These little ones are barely able to walk, but now we put them in the high-pressure situation of trying to unbuckle their seat-belt, grab their backpack (which might be as tall as they a

Jury Duty

I was recently summoned to jury duty. I know, groan. Except I didn't. I had never experienced it before and was curious to see what it was like.   When the day to report arrives, they separate you into groups, asking various questions to decide if you will be selected to serve. Do you know the accused? Do you have conflicts that would keep you from serving? Can you stay focused?  I wanted to answer well, if only because my kids kept wishing me luck the day before, telling me they hoped I made the team. After all, who wants to be rejected? It occurred to me that there are things you probably shouldn’t say right away if you’re wanting to serve on a jury. I know, I know, people don’t typically want to serve on a jury. But that list didn’t seem nearly as humorous to me. Here are the things you probably shouldn’t say if you want to be selected for jury. I hold myself in contempt. You can’t handle the truth. We find the defendant guilty. I believe the judge looks pretty in his robe. I’d