But God

This season of my life. It's a season of a lot of uncertainty. I'm applying for jobs out of state, I'm praying about getting a car and a place to live, and about wisdom and direction for a lot of the relationships in my life. It can be easy for me to dwell in the middle of all of these things and get stuck. 

"But God..."

The two best words in the English language. The two words that speak to the hope that I have in the middle of uncertainty, trials, pain, separation. Life is hard. "But God." I don't know which jobs to apply for. "But God." I don't have the strength today to love the way I'm called to. "But God." I don't have the strength to even get out of bed, there is so much to each day. "But God."

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins  in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.  

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,  so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

Ephesians 2:1-10

 

But God gives me hope. I love the verse in Romans 8 that says, "Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience." Because of a sacrifice I will never be able to repay, I have hope. Because there is a "But God," behind my mess, I can wait patiently, and joyfully, through the uncertainty.