It's Hard To Be You

You did not ask for this assignment nor the pain that comes with it.

But here you are.

Here you are trying to live right. Trying to change things. Trying to make things better. Trying to do what must be done and suffering in the process.

Is it because of something you've done? Something they did? The overcast of sin still covering us from Eden to now? Take your pick. Whatever applies, your reality,

your today,

your right now,

hurts.

Last week, I mentioned that I was not excited about writing on this month's theme of suffering. I sense Moses must have felt the same in Psalm 90.

Yes, we carry the weight of our own bad decisions, but carrying the weight of someone else's is a different kind of heavy.

It's hard to be you.

~Pastor Toure Roberts

It is hard being the one who has to fix things. Hard being the one who has to make things right. Hard when you realize things could be better if a better decision had been made.

Hard to accept the fact that more is expected of you.

Whether it is your fault or someone else's, we all exist and suffer in the context of sin so I do not count it strange that the oldest psalm in the Bible, Psalms 90, emphasizes suffering.

Suffering was the first pain point on earth (Adam and Eve saw to that), and it is only through suffering that we can be reconciled.

That's the good news.

Because we suffer in sin, God is determined to save us from it.

But there has to be one. One crying out in the wilderness.

Psalm 90 is Moses' cry in the wilderness.

Psalm 91 is the Almighty God's response.

I love that!

Lord, You have been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth, Or ever You had formed the earth and the world, Even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God. ~Psalm 90:1-2, New King James Version

He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. ~Psalm 91:1 NKJV

If you have ever wondered if God

sees you,

hears you,

listens to you,

understands you,

loves you,

I encourage you to read these two psalms together, section by section, as a call and response. Perhaps, like Moses, you will find yourself immersed in a heavy but necessary conversation with the Holy One.

Yes, it is hard to be you but you don't have to play savior. You have a God for that.

Oh, satisfy us early with Your mercy, That we may rejoice and be glad all our days! Make us glad according to the days in which You have afflicted us, The years in which we have seen evil. ~Psalms 90:14-15 NKJV

With long life I will satisfy him, And show him My salvation.” ~Psalms 91:16 NKJV

Find your struggle in Psalm 90. Find your answer in Psalm 91.

None of us are immune to suffering. We're not immune to salvation, either.

(Thank God!)

Listen, I know it gets hard.

It's hard to be you.

I'm not asking you to relish in your suffering (nobody wants that).

I am asking you to get excited about how your cry in the wilderness serves as God's queue to come and see about you.

But only if you choose to dwell with Him.

I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress; My God, in Him I will trust.” ~Psalms 91:2 NKJV

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Be courageous.