God Pays Back

Some seasons of life are harder than others. They require more, they take more, they leave less behind. They put us in a mindset where every day is a grind, where we aren't sure whether we'll make it through...or what we might look like if we do. Everything that we have is put on the table, and then it feels like Jesus flips that table, and we're left wondering what on earth is happening. 

What in the heavens is happening. 

I have known many persons who have encountered such tough seasons. I think nearly all of us have. Struggle seems to be universal in a fallen world, just as Jesus promised it would be. (In this world, you will have trouble.) 

But what is also true is that struggle doesn't last forever. And when it finally comes to an end, God pays us back for the times of trouble we've had (Joel 2:25). 

That's been God's story from the very beginning. From slavery to the Promised Land. From exile back home. From the pile of ashes to the life of abundant blessings. If you read God's story, every chapter comes back to a tremendous blessing that is built on the former burden. It's just the way God works. 

Now, of course, there are some exceptions here. There are persons who get so addicted to the drama that they don't know how to function without it, so they keep running their lives off the rails because that's what feels most comfortable to them. They never experience the blessings of God because they're too busy stuck where they're at to come out of it. That's not on God; that's on them. 

And I've worked with enough hospice families to know that we don't always get God's return investment in the seasons in which we want it. Our loved ones still die. We still suffer. Life is hard. Pain is real. Grief is overwhelming. But I've also had the opportunity to run into a handful of these families just a short season later, and I can see it - I can see how their lives are coming full again. 

And that's really it - when we say that God pays back for times of trouble, what we're really saying is that God makes full the things that this world empties out. When you've poured your last pour from what was once an overflowing cup, God overfills you again. When you hear the pain echo through the hollow halls of your aching heart, God puts a new song in that empty space. 

Over and over and over again, we're living lives where God keeps patching the cracks, gluing the pieces back together, and filling us up...just when the world thinks it's shattered us beyond repair and laughs at the mess of our lives that has spilled out all over the floor. 

Nah, world. You just made room for more. And God...the Lord my God...has always been a God of more. 

So if you're going through a tough season, know that God is already working on it. He's already building the treasure He's going to pour back into you. Read His story again if you have to and see how He's done it again and again and again and again, for persons just like you. 

That first drop hits like water in the desert and then, before you know it, your cup overflows again with all the goodness of God who does not leave His people empty.