“When the foundations are being destroyed, what can the righteous do?” Psalm 11:3

Overall, it was a very, very bad day. I praise God those don’t come very often. But, like it or not, there it was. Sitting at the car dealer, I was awaiting repair on a recall notice for my truck. In my dark mood, I had taken a book off my shelf that had been there for decades… “The Joyful Christian.” by C.S. Lewis. In it was written, “to the most joyful Christian I know! THANK YOU. Katie.”

The date of her writing was 1979, a year and half into our marriage. I remembered that in that year, there were some big issues, too. But overall, ‘Joy’ was winning. Yesterday, and 45 years later, it didn’t feel that way. So I did what I learned to do long ago… I grabbed a book and crawled into a hole. I hadn’t checked out long when I got a text from my daughter containing MORE bad news!

A friend her age, with 2 small children her kid’s age, was being rushed to the hospital. Cancer has moved though her quickly with shocking speed. I’d met Fernanda once near Christmas. She was bubbly and full of life… her husband and kids were a joy. Now, with what’s been going on in the world, news of her makes me want to dig deeper to flee from the pain. A condition even Jesus experienced.

Psalm 10:1, 13:1, and 22:1 are questions that implicate God as the originator of bad news and events. Even Jesus said, “My God, my God WHY have you forsaken me?” So how am ‘I’ supposed to understand and help my daughter with an answer? Then I came upon today’s verse. It doesn’t have a solid ‘do this’ answer, but presents me with a better question God can answer. “What can ‘I’ do now, God?”

When bad news, dark days, hard times and impossible odds ring my doorbell, I have discovered that the best thing to do is to run to God and simply WAIT. Trust. Lean in. And ask. I know God didn’t CAUSE the bad issues that face us, most of those come from living in a sinful world. But God IS ACTIVE and ‘working things out.’ (Romans 8:28). So today.. I pray… and listen. Will you join me?

Please pray for Fernanda, her family and her friends. It is something we ALL CAN DO. Thank you. 

“God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished.” Romans 3:25

Going to put another dish in the dishwasher, I noticed something out of place. I don’t know what made me see it, but after getting the idea that something was wrong, I investigated further… only to discover I had been loading dirty dishes into a dishwasher full of clean dishes! The previous load was clean, but not put away. After a day or 2, the cycle of ‘clean and put away’ had been broken.

Trying to figure a way around the problem really had no other solution. Not knowing what dishes were clean or dirty, the only real choice was to run the dishwasher… again. Because there are only 2 of us, we can go a long time without having to run the dishwasher. That means situations like this can sometimes happen. But God is perfect! And because He’s perfect, He doesn’t get a redo.

This verse is rather tricky because it uses the Old Testament word “atonement.” Atonement means ‘to cover.’ Once, when the neighbors were stopping over, I atoned for the dirty floor by brushing it under the rug. It was covered… but not removed! When it came to sin, God had NO choice in the matter of what to do with it. It HAD to be PAID FOR IN FULL. And only Jesus could pay God’s anger.

The real word is ‘propitiate’ and it means to appease, conciliate, pacify or placate. God’s anger and judgment against sin was a matter that HAD to be taken care of. NO dirty dishes allowed! So, God chose the only choice He had. To sacrifice His own Son. Now… “I” have a choice. If I want to be clean before God, I only have 1 path for propitiation. And that is to choose Jesus! And I have. Have you?