Outlaw Blues

Ain't it hard to
stumble

and land in some funny lagoon?

Ain't it hard to stumble

and land in some muddy lagoon?

Especially when it's nine below zero

and three o'clock in the afternoon.

Ain't gonna hang no picture,

Ain't gonna hang no picture frame.

Ain't gonna hang no picture,

Ain't gonna hang no picture frame.

Well, I might look like Robert Ford

But I feel just like a Jesse James.

Bob Dylan

I waited patiently for the LORD;
he inclined to me and heard my cry.
He drew me up from the pit of destruction,
out of the miry bog,
and set my feet upon a rock,
making my steps secure.
He put a new song in my mouth,
a song of praise to our God.

Psalm 40:1-3

Have you ever looked in the mirror and wondered who was looking back at you? Have you felt so far from God that you wondered how you would ever be able to return to him? Have you ever been so far that you started to doubt and give up? I have. On many occasions. And every time, I attempt to try and win God back. I think that maybe I'll try to quit sinning and God will like me and maybe I will feel loved again. Or I decide that I'll start reading the bible and hoping that by doing so, I will feel forgiven and maybe grow in Him. So often I pretend that God is like my girlfriend in the respect that when I mess up, I have to send her flowers or tell her how sorry I am a thousand times or go to her house and play her favorite cheesy love song on a boom box, hoping she'll come to the window and take me back. Thats how I think about God sometimes. Maybe God will take me back if I go to his window and play "How Great Thou Art" on my boom box. But that is not the God that is in the scriptures.

What does David in Psalm 40 say when he is in despair? He simply waits patiently for the Lord. Boy, that is tough sometimes. David never measured his spiritual growth by what he did for the Lord. So why do we? Faith is not a checklist. Our deeds will not earn us any more merit with God just as it will not remove us from His hand. In the following verses, we see David's deliverance and in each instance it is God doing all the work. God heard his cry, God drew him from the pit, God set his feet upon the rock, God made his steps secure, and God put a new song of praise on his lips! And this is the pattern throughout the bible. It is a continuous theme of a Father pursuing his children, saving them, loving them, providing for them, and making them holy. So let us rest in that grace. In times of despair, let us cry out to the Lord and wait patiently for Him. He is good and He is faithful and He will come to usl.