Life doesn't Turn Out The Way We Expect

Tonight for some reason I got the urge to read the two inaugural addresses of President Abraham Lincoln. I was struck by how the two speeches almost seem to have been given by two different men. And indeed, in many ways, they were. When Abraham Lincoln first took office, the nation was facing the threat of the southern states seceeding and the possibility of war. Mr Lincoln, in his first address, spoke of the necessity of preserving the union and seemed confident that it could be accomplished without bloodshed. This was the spring of 1861.

Now it's four years later. The war had come and the price had been awful. Instead of a nation that had pulled together and unified, laying aside their differences, Mr. Lincoln was now presiding over a badly wounded, shattered nation still in the throes of war, badly in need of healing. How could he have seen into the future four years earlier. Obviously, he is now a man with some deep questions as to  why this terrible war had come about. He opined that perhaps it was divine judgment against the offence of slavery. Mr. Lincoln eloquently states in the address,
     
            "Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth
             piled by the bondman's two hundred and fifty years                       

             of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every
             drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by
             another drawn with the sword, as it was said three
             Thousand years ago, so it must still be said, 'The    
             judgments of the Lord are true and righteous
             altogether.' "

Of course, this brings me around to today. How often do we look back with incredulity and think, I would never have imagined my life to turn out the way it did. Four years ago, I would have predicted a much different life today. Not one with deep wounds, mostly inflicted by me, a trail of debris, and badly in need of healing. Perhaps much of it is the Lord's discipline to correct me. I'm sleeping in the bed I made.

Mr. Lincoln almost certainly did not see four years into the future to a time when he would be presiding over a nation that, yes, was still one nation, but almost mortally wounded.

The one thing I have learned to hang on to is the faith that while all of this may have taken me by surprise, none of it took my heavenly father by surprise. He also promises that none of it is wasted if we love him. (Rom. 8:28) His purpose will be accomplished. and he promises never to leave us or forsake us.

In the five decades I've been walking this planet the biggest thing I've learned is I don't know very much. But I know that there is someone who knows all things and that he loves me, not because of who I am, but because of who he is. (Ezek 36:22,"...not for your sake,..that I am going to do these things, but for the sake of my holy name.)

Often the journey out of the dark valley leads through an even darker tunnel. Another thing I have learned is that, more important than seeing light at the end of the tunnel, is feeling the hand of my savior, holding mine while I am in the tunnel. In my desire to be out of this darkness, I must not pull away from him.

The civil war changed Abraham Lincoln as well as a nation. Slavery was no more and Mr. lincoln had a much greater humility than before. Our journeys shape and change us. They change us for the better if we look to God's divine hand of providence and don't view ourselves as victims. It's been said that what doesn't kill you will make you stronger. Trouble will come, and yes, sometimes it is excruciating. However, I am convinced that if we allow our savior, who bore our sins on Calvary's cross to hold us, he may not take the trouble away but he will make something beautiful of the trouble that will be for his glory and for our blessing. God bless you all