There, There Dear
“There. There. Dear. It. Will. Be. Ok.” These are words that, after a few years of training, my husband says when I am lamenting some hardship. Over the years this has included issues with our children, financial fears, or other run-of-the-mill occurrences.
A few days ago I told him I was discouraged with the current state of affairs in our nation. I knew it would be temporary and suggested that a ““There. There. Dear. It. Will. Be. Ok” might be in order.
For the first time in our married lives he couldn’t say it. What he said was that it might not be “OK” again in our lifetime. Though this was not uplifting it was something that we Christians must consider. Regardless of how faithful we have been individually, our nation is obviously under the judgment of God. When a nation gets judgment poured out in the wrath and justice of God, the believers will also suffer in it (Habakkuk 1:1-4).
The thought of this can bring discontentment. Discontentment is sin that we need to repent of when we recognize it.
I know that discontentment is difficult to see as sin in our current political, racial, and “viral” circumstances, not to mention Supreme Court rulings that shake a fist at God.
As Christians, we have to first get a grip on our own contentment coming from our faith in what God is doing for a greater purpose than our personal comfort before we can offer others some form of, “There, there, dear, it will be ok.”
As we think about how to teach others to go through these difficult times, can we keep our eyes fixed on Christ and the eternal plans He has for His own people? Can we obey Him when we know that the world does not agree with Him or us on hot topics like abortion and LGBTQ matters? Are we willing to repeat what God says about these things so that others might hear the truth and repent?
When we look at the prophets like Isaiah, Jeremiah, and even Paul, we see that there is no guarantee that anything we say will be heard or effective in changing a person’s hearts That is God’s work. Our work is to have faith and obey His commands.
There are so many misconceptions about God and His Word – primarily that He doesn’t want us to have any fun. He is not a killjoy but in fact wants to set people free from their bondage.
One good example is His view of homosexuality. God calls it an abomination, but why? From my days as a social worker I learned that there can be many different reasons for homosexuality to develop in a person. None of them are healthy or good. (A great book on this is “Mercy Triumphs Over Judgement,” by Joanne Highley). A person’s sexuality is affected by things from sexual assaults as a child to an abusive relationship with a parent (the book lists many more reasons). Why would God or any other caring human being want to perpetuate such behaviors to encourage a growing population of homosexuals? I am baffled by this. Wouldn’t it be more merciful to love someone back to healthy emotions than allow them (or worse, encourage them) to stay in the hurt, fear or shame of past wounds?
Though we all seem to live day-to-day for our own “good” without thinking about the purposes of God, it is important to see that God has a reason for every difficult circumstance that enters our lives and for every Word in the Bible.
Contentment comes through an active faith, saying and doing all we can to advance His Kingdom on earth. By this we know that God will work all things together for good for those who love Him and are called according to His purposes (Romans 8:28).
Those prophets who went through very difficult times serving the Lord put their hope in eternal, not earthly acceptance.
Though the immediate future seems to have a dark cloud over it with no one offering a “There, there, dear, it will be OK,” our eternity will be so bright with the glory of God that we will not need the sun to shine there (Revelation 21:23). That is one bright future for the believer and a great hope we can offer to anyone who has ears to hear.