One Day At A Time - A Tale of Three Elephants

What do we do when it seems God isn’t answering our prayers? When it seems that He is so far away, and we can’t see or hear Him in our lives anymore? When we are at the end of our rope and feel abandoned?

I‘ve been struggling with a heavy issue in my life for several years now. It just won’t seem to go away. It’s heavy, oppressive. It hurts. Oh, how it hurts! You see I’ve been a Christian since childhood. God has seen me through a lot since then. He and I are tight. I know where to run when the poop hits the proverbial fan. And that is exactly what I’ve done. I’ve turned to God’s word, I’ve worshipped, I’ve prayed, I’ve begged, I’ve pleaded, I’ve submitted (for as long as I could stand it anyway). I’ve prayed for my enemy. I’ve given it to God. If I’ve done wrong, show me, convict me. Change their hearts, change my heart, bring us reconciliation. I’ve tried so hard to let it go. Put it down. Let God handle it. But I just wasn’t seeing any progress. It didn’t seem to be any better. The people that were hurting me seemed to be winning. I couldn’t even say that I had really had any God “winks” in what seemed forever.

So on one dark day, I asked God why? Why God? Why are you letting my enemies win? Why are you not fighting this battle for me? Why is this still going on all these years later? What is going on? And he began to speak to me.

The Elephant in the Room

He had me see the things that we struggle with in life, no matter what it might be, as an elephant. You know that big giant elephant in the room that no one is talking about. No matter what we do, there it is. We bump into it. We push it from one side of the room to the other when we try to get things done. When we try to reach out to someone and talk and it stands right there between us. Want to go somewhere? You have to pack it up and take it with you. There is no escaping it. And we must feed it with our anxiety, distress, worry, depression, etc. And then it dumps big stinky messes into our lives - drama, conflict, stress.

At some point, we get tired, overwhelmed. We come to the end of our rope. And we cry out to God. “God, I can’t do it! Help me! Take it away!”

God as the Ringmaster

And what we most often expect is for God to march in like a ringmaster at a circus. For him to command that elephant to stand on its hind legs, twirl around, do a trick or two and march on out of our lives. And sometimes he does just that. Sometimes, we get miraculous healings. Sometimes, the desire for drugs instantly disappears. Sometimes, the relationship is instantly healed. We have all had those moments in our lives or at least seen them in the lives of others. And many aren’t they amazing? Awe-inspiring? Why wouldn’t we want that?

God as the Super Hero

Sometimes, God comes in like a super hero and gives us super-natural power to load that elephant up on our backs and carry it around as if it weighs nothing. Sometimes he gives us a super-natural peace, a super-natural strength to move through the difficult things in our lives with an ease that we can’t explain. We know that it must be him because we know that without him, we would be on the floor, curled up into the fetal position, with no idea what to do. And yet we have an assurance that He is with us and that it is all going to be OK.

God as the Chef

Finally, God showed me that, sometimes, he comes in like a gourmet chef. And how do you eat an elephant??? One bite at a time. God comes in and carves off a small piece of this elephant, just enough for us to handle in the moment, and he will marinate it in his grace, and season it with his presence, and cook it up just right so that it is palatable and even nutritious for us. In this life, we must go through some trials to strengthen our faith and to glorify Him. In this process, we truly learn to look to Him for our daily nourishment and our faith in Him grows as he shows up day after day to meet our needs. It’s like the manna in the desert. It’s just enough for today and we cannot carry it over into tomorrow. Every morning we must get up and look again to Him to provide. As he feeds our spirits, our faith grows stronger and as it does, the elephant begins to shrink.

This process can be slow, arduous, and painful, and we begin to wonder if it will ever end. We get tired and hopeless and begin to think maybe God has abandoned us. We begin to take our daily dose of elephant for granted and we grow tired of it, just craving something different; anything different, really. We whine, moan, and complain. We want to just lie down and give up. But I can tell you from my experience, that it has been at the end of struggles like this that I have had my highest mountaintop experiences. My faith has matured, and I seem to be on a new level spiritually. At that point, when God does start pouring out his more obvious blessings I am so keenly aware of them and deeply grateful.

What does all of this mean?

The ringmaster and the magician are important aspects of our walk with Christ, especially in the beginning. If the Bible was just one more dusty, old, history book like all the rest, would we really find our faith in the one true God? The word itself is living and breathing and as we believe, God begins to work in our lives in ways that we can see, in ways that we MUST know that it is Him. He works in dramatic ways like the ringmaster and magician but if that was all we came to know of Him, how deep would our faith be? Would we really develop the faith, the trust, the spiritual maturity to withstand the storms of life? We would be like children chasing after him, begging for our next treat - a sweet piece of candy that would satisfy us for a few moments but ultimately would leave us hungry again.

When Jesus comes into our lives as the chef, we learn to get our daily sustenance from Him. We learn to turn to Him daily and we learn to live without fear of starving, knowing that, whether we can see Him or not, He is there meeting our every need and working all things to our good. Jesus does not want awe-inspired spectators, He wants disciples. He wants us to pick up our cross daily and follow Him. And this is what happens as we slowly take apart the elephants in our lives. We want the quick answer but only through the long process to we gain the strength we need to walk in the peace that He promises us in the Bible. Great chefs don’t cook great meals in microwaves, they slow cook them to get every last ounce of flavor they can from them.

Update

It has now been several months since I have written this piece. I believe in many ways I have reached the end of this elephant. I have experienced breakthroughs in this situation and have been at a higher space spiritually than I have been in many years. The problem is not gone. In fact, very little has changed in that regard. The only thing that has changed is my relationship and faith in Jesus. Just a few nights ago, I was reading psalms and God spoke to me as plainly as if He had been in human form in the room and told me, “I am going to restore what has been stolen from you many times over.” My pain turned instantly into excitement to see just exactly what he would do. I have found Him faithful through this time we have spent together as he prepared this elephant for me and I know that he will deliver on His promises. He has opened amazing doors for me, knowing that I have gained so much knowledge and maturity in the process that He can trust me with greater things. My God is so good!!!

If you are in this process, do not give up before you receive the blessing. How awful would it be to go through what you have been through and give up just before you received the answer to your prayers? Stay in the word of God, get involved in an active, Bible-believing group of believers, and pray without ceasing. Draw close to Jesus and let Him meet your every need. You will get through this and you will be stronger, more faithful, and closer to God than ever before. You will be so glad you stuck it out with Him.

God loves you and has you in the palm of His hand.