“The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?”
Jeremiah 17:9
Almost everyone has grieved a lost goal or aspiration. When our dreams come crashing down, they are often replaced by a reality we didn’t expect.
If you watched the 2022 Winter Olympics held in Beijing, you probably saw the disappointing events of U.S. alpine skier Mikaela Shiffrin. The world tuned in to see her fail repeatedly in her races and then—even more surprisingly—to open up her heart about it all. She didn’t sugarcoat it; she admitted “it’s possible to feel both proud of a career and sad for the moment you’re in.” But 12 years of hard work had evaporated in minutes. That’s hard.
As believers, our own experiences with failure may have us wondering if perhaps God is not as close to us as He said. With our pride deflated, our emotions start to feel more real than the promises of the Bible.
However, this is not true. We live in the tension of trying to understand our emotions while not being ruled by them. We can know an undeniable fact, and feel an emotion that is entirely different. But never will that change who God is.
If you watched the 2022 Winter Olympics held in Beijing, you probably saw the disappointing events of U.S. alpine skier Mikaela Shiffrin. The world tuned in to see her fail repeatedly in her races and then—even more surprisingly—to open up her heart about it all. She didn’t sugarcoat it; she admitted “it’s possible to feel both proud of a career and sad for the moment you’re in.” But 12 years of hard work had evaporated in minutes. That’s hard.
As believers, our own experiences with failure may have us wondering if perhaps God is not as close to us as He said. With our pride deflated, our emotions start to feel more real than the promises of the Bible.
However, this is not true. We live in the tension of trying to understand our emotions while not being ruled by them. We can know an undeniable fact, and feel an emotion that is entirely different. But never will that change who God is.
Scripture Focus
Jeremiah 17:5-13
Insight
“Feelings and feelings and feelings. Let me try thinking instead.” (C.S. Lewis, 1961)
Bible In A Year
- Jeremiah 29-30
- Psalm 118
- 1 Corinthians 10
