THE NORTHERN KENTUCKY SEARCHER
"Search the scriptures: for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me. " (John 5:39)

VOLUME 7, NUMBER 39, SEPTEMBER 30, 2007

IS IT EVER REALLY “JUST RIGHT?”

            I am sitting in my office looking out the window and seeing something that we have not seen around this area for a very long time – RAIN.  I am 53 years old and can remember a few droughts over the years, but nothing that compares to the severe lack of rain we have experienced this summer.  Exacerbating the situation has been the intense heat.  This has been the hottest summer in recorded history in our area, and Oh, have I complained! 

            Yes sir, I admit it.  I have been miserably hot this summer.  I have bemoaned the loss of my lawn (because I refuse to spend the money to water it).  I have gotten sick on a golf course because I did not drink enough water on a day that was pushing 100 degrees – I choose to blame that one on Harry.  Who plays golf when it is that hot anyway?  I have repeatedly said, “I can’t wait for winter and snow.”

            How about you?  Have you found yourself complaining about the weather this summer?  Have you found yourself actually anxious for winter to get here and maybe even looking forward to snow?  I believe that probably most of us have had something or other to say about the weather.

            The funny thing is that along about the middle of February, especially if it has been a particularly cold and snowy winter, many of us will be saying, “I can’t wait for spring.  I am so tired of all of this snow and having to put on a heavy coat every time I go out. It makes it hard to get in and out of the car.” 

            If next spring is particularly rainy, along about the middle of May many of us will be saying, “When is it going to stop raining?  My grass is growing so quickly I can’t keep up with it.  It is just too wet to mow.  I can’t wait for summer and some dry weather.”  I freely admit that my voice will probably join in the chorus.

            I wonder why that is?  Why is it that so many of us always seem to want things to be just a little bit different?    Frankly, I suspect that some of us are just prone to complaining.  It really doesn’t matter what the weather is or how things are going at work, at home, or at our local congregation, some of us are just prone to complaining.  That is unfortunate, for the Bible teaches us that we must learn to be content – not complacent, but content.  In Philippians 4:11-13 Paul wrote, “Not that I speak in respect of want; for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.  I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.  I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.”   What a blessing it is if we can learn to be thankful, happy and content with whatever the day might bring.  After all, it is another day that we have been granted.

            However, I believe that there may also be another reason why things don’t ever seem to be “just right.”    God has given us a wonderful world in which to live.  Yes, there is suffering, pain, and ugliness to contend with.  Yes, we wonder sometimes at the brutality and wickedness of some.  But there is also so much that is good, beautiful, and even awe-inspiring on this world that God has created.  Yet, deep inside of us all, there is an innate desire for something even greater.  I believe it is an inborn desire to be with our Father in heaven, a yearning to go home to that glorious place that the Lord has prepared for us.  I believe it is part of our nature as those who have been created in the image of God.

            So there is never really going to be complete satisfaction with this world in which we live, because this world is not really our home and our lives here are not really what we are all about.  We are just passing through on a journey to a glorious, magnificent, and marvelous place.  I am reminded of the passage found in Hebrews 11:13-16: “These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.  For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country.  And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned.  But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for He hath prepared for them a city.”

Greg Litmer