In Chapter 11 (“Seeing God Through Shattered Glass”) of In the Eye of the Storm, Max Lucado states that each of us has articulated and very well-defined expectations of what God should be doing in our lives. However, when pain enters our world, say in the form of a ministry downsizing or position loss, our expectations are not met and doubts most likely begin to arise. As Pastor Lucado describes, we can divide our lives into before and after our pain:
“From then on, there was life before the pain and life after the pain. Before the pain, the view was clear: God seemed so near. After your pain, well, he was harder to see. He seemed a bit distant . . . harder to perceive. Your pain distorted the view- not eclipsed it, but distorted it.”
Just as the greatest storm the disciples faced on the Sea of Galilee was not in the night sky, our greatest storm is not in our downsizing or position loss- it’s in our hearts. How, then, can our stormy hearts be calmed? By steadfastly trusting in Jesus, despite our eclipsed view. As Max said at the beginning of this book: “Jesus is closer than you’ve ever dreamed.”
Isaiah 40:11- “He leads his flock like a shepherd: He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart.”
