“Something Is Not Right”

In the middle of one night,

Miss Clavel turned on her light,

and said,

     “Something is not right!”

                            (Madeline, 1939)

I can relate to the greatly distressed Miss Clavel, waking in the middle of the night, wondering what is the matter.  Worries LOVE the darkness when the monsters under the bed are making too much noise, shadows grow bigger by the minute, and there is absolutely NOTHING you can do until morning.  It is a feeling of what used to be called “disquiet,”  an uneasiness or anxiety that pushes its way through the door and takes over your entire bedroom.  It is a disturbance in my universe, an awareness that something is missing and not right.

More often than not, that “something” is within, those old fears and foes rallying around like familiar bullies on the school playground.

Anxiety comes packed ready to burden you on your journey into the vast unknown and sometimes into the even larger “I know what I am facing.”  But when you are right with God, you are a David confidently facing a giant with a stone in your pocket.  When you are right with God, you can move, live, and work, energized and unhindered, walking on dry ground in the midst of the Red Sea.  He is your strength and shield.

Sometimes what is missing and not right  is the need to recalibrate our relationship with God.  When He is not at the center of all we are and all we do, that throws everything off-balance.  It is not that our relationship with God has been negated, but something is not right.   Have I ignored what He has been telling me or chosen a path that leads away from Him?   That unquenchable longing in our hearts is our misplaced and misdirected desire for Him,  He alone who holds the key.  French mathematician, physicist and philosopher Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) nailed it when he said, “There is a God shaped vacuum in the heart of every man which cannot be filled by any created thing, but only by God, the Creator, made known through Jesus Christ.”

“Something is not right?”  What have I been trying to stuff into that hole?  That longing is only what God can fill. 

Anxiety fills in the spaces when God is pushed to the sidelines or ignored.  And then what seems initially like a little bitty worry grows exponentially into a burden too heavy to carry, too huge to ignore, and too cumbersome to hide.  And the fear that comes with the package deal blocks out any available light. 

The strategic difference is laying these anxieties and longings before Him and praying through them with the LORD, making sure that you are right with Him, recalibrating your heart, trusting in Him alone.   God redeems difficulties for tremendous good.  He may or may not not banish your problems, but God takes away the fear and gives the strength to work through them.  If you ask Him, He will show you how to navigate the situation at hand.  It is not that you will approach life in an artificial-sweetened, fake-smile kind of way, but trust His reality as it is, knowing, going and growing in His unfailing love and purpose for you, no matter the circumstances, His Presence within, His peace beyond understanding.

 

Why are you cast down, O my soul,

and why are you disquieted within me?

Hope in God;

for I shall again praise Him,

my help

and my God.

…By day the LORD commands His unfailing love,

and at night His song is with me,

a prayer to the God of my life.

                                 Psalm 42. 5,8