When You Don't Make the Cut ...

Hi Friends,

Well, amid coming down with a crummy cold, Bryan being away at a men's retreat, and 6 kids to take care of, I finished my revisions for Wrestling with Wonder and sent them in to my editor.  Now as I wait for the next round of editing, I'm thinking about a couple things that didn't make the "cut."

Here's a poem that won't be included:
When hope lies in tattered ruins
And faith is on its knees
God's love embraces me
Until the darkness flees.

And a bit of prose:
When God's questions form Job 38 echoed through Mary's life, she discovered the answers would go far beyond anything she ever imagined, anything she could have ever dreamed.  The gates of death would be shown to her, the gates of deepest darkness . . .

And what I learned from them:
Nothing was wrong with either the poem or the prose.  They were deficient, less than, weaker, stupid, useless, not-good-enough.  Instead, they just didn't fit with what I was doing.  They weren't needed where I had them ... but they are used elsewhere.

And I think that's a good lesson for me, for all of us, when we face rejection, when we aren't included, when we feel "cut out."  Maybe the place we were trying to be isn't the place God wants us to be.  Maybe he has something else for us.

We aren't less or deficient or not-good-enough, we are just being pointed somewhere else.  We aren't needed in chapter 13, but we are needed in a blog post about finding God's perfect place meant just for us.

So, when you're feeling left out, remember that God has a plan, a purpose, a place especially for you.  Seek HIM and not that place that you thought would make you feel special.  Seek his vision, seek his truth, trust in him.  He will not leave you.  He will not forsake you.  He will not cut you out of the wonder of his special love for you.