Those who know your name

          I love talking to my mom. It doesn't matter whether she always understands me or has applicable advice towards my struggles. I love it so much because afterwards I almost always walk away with a new perspective. And when I don't, sometimes I walk away with a new understanding of my own pride and how it is preventing me from seeing God's perspective. Because of her wisdom from walking with the Lord for so many years and the experience of walking through life alongside so many broken people, she has a perspective I long to hold onto.

         From being home just a few weeks I have heard stories, heard sermons, watched proof of the hurt and heartache going on in this world today as well as in my hometown. Local families have lost loved ones from extreme tragedy and deadly disease. Families are falling apart because of hidden sin and pride. On Sunday our pastor asked us if we have a clue what suffering is or will be like and then shared the testimony of a believer in the middle east he had just served with who watched his brother murdered before his eyes, by his own family, for believing in Christ. Perspective?





        What does it mean to have God's perspective as we walk through this life? Through reading a new biography of Dietrich Bonhoeffer I am learning from his journals that we cannot expect to have God's perspective. It is HIS perspective. The problem is expecting, because then we are let down, then we blame God. When in reality we should see each and every sight of perspective as immense belssing. In one of his essays Bonhoeffer argues, 'in order to know anything at all about God, one has to rely on revelation from God. In other words, God can speak into this world, but man cannot reach out of this world to examine God.' Man cannot earn his way to heaven, God reaches down and graciously lifts man to heaven.

         It is not about us. It is about knowing Christ and falling at His knees in need of grace, in need of strength, in need of forgiveness. It is through a glimpse, a revealing of GOD'S perspective, that we find our own. And that is something to be thankful for.
 
         This morning Christoph said, "that is why I love streams (Streams in the Desert) because it always gives perspective." How perfectly put.

          God is God and we are not. Yes my fears are real. My worries extreme. My heartbreak tangible. But God is God and that means He is:
   
          Jehovah Rapha, Jehovah Nissi, Yahweh, Jehovah El Roi...

          When I realize what is name is, when I realize who He is....my fears are silenced. My worries quenched. My heartbreak healed. His perspective is perfect and even when I cannot see it, Lord help me trust in you. Help me know you.


And those who know your name put their trust in you,
for you, O LORD, have not forsaken those who seek you.
                  Psalm 9:10