A Love Story - The Dark Ages

So the next morning David wrote a letter to Joab and gave it to Uriah to deliver.  The letter instructed Joab, “Station Uriah on the front lines where the battle is fiercest. Then pull back so that he will be killed.”  So Joab assigned Uriah to a spot close to the city wall where he knew the enemy’s strongest men were fighting.  And when the enemy soldiers came out of the city to fight, Uriah the Hittite was killed along with several other Israelite soldiers.  2 Samuel 11:14-17

In every story, there is a part where the hero falls.  You do not have to go to a movie or read a book to see it occur.  It often happens in your life.  I remember not having a job during a recession and the struggles that went with it, and a breakup with a girlfriend as a teenager that let me know that life was soon at an end.  Yes, I know the girlfriend breakup is a bit overdramatized, but you know when you were a teenager that most events had much greater significance than that it had in the grand scheme of things.  Having gone through those moments, many would call them the dark ages of their life.  You feel a bit lost, and your confidence is shattered wondering if you could ever get it back.  The future seems uncertain.

I bring this up because in this love story we have with God, the very thing God had perfected, we somehow let it slip away through sin.  While the story of our brokenness begins with the failing of Adam in the Garden of Eden, I mention the story of David because it exemplifies the much greater challenge we have in our relationship with God.  It is not one sin like Adam’s eating from the tree of knowledge.  We are often compounding our issues like David did (lust, deception, adultery, etc.).  We know God is perfect, and we do our best to live out to His expectation.  But our sinful nature sometimes wins out.  Thus, while we are perfectly made, somehow, we are imperfect.  I know that sounds sad like we will never overcome it.  We are living Greek tragedies that have these internal wounds unseen to those who do not know us and many who do.  This is the reality, and my goal is not to further dwell on those things that are not so pleasant.  In fact, the point of say God understands this as well.  Despite David’s clear sinful fall here, David would still become a person loved by God for his heart.  As I learned in most relationships, they grow stronger not because of our failures.  It is what we learn from them.  Just as David would later learn to rely on God, we too need to sort through our issues, and repent to be closer to Him.

There is a reason John 3:16 begins with, “God so loved the world.”  I will cover that soon.  For today, our focus is to know that when things seem darkest God is still with us showing how loving a Father He is. Let us not lose sight of that even when we may seem like we are failing.  Keep fighting knowing just as we have faith in God’s power, He has faith in us as well.  Where are you questioning your relationship with God today?  How can you fight through your struggles to be closer to God?  My prayer is in our love story, we are courageous in dealing with those moments with God in the dark ages. Amen