4 hours ago
I'm surrounded by pregnant women.
I don't know if there were always this many pregnant women around and I just never noticed before, or if there are really more pregnant women around me now than in the past.
I personally know eleven women who either are or have been pregnant in the last few months. Plus the two or three women I seem to see every time I go grocery shopping. Plus many pregnant patients that have come into the office within the past few months as well. Not to mention many different celebrities that I keep hearing about.
I'm telling you, I'm surrounded. This does absolutely nothing for the baby fever that I'm already plagued with, except to make it much worse.
It doesn't really seem very fair to have so many pregnant women put in my path right around the time that I'm starting to naturally think more about babies anyway, even though I can't even have a baby right now. It's like torture, considering the fertility issues I'm already dealing with. Sometimes it's downright depressing.
Last week, after a particularly depressing morning, I was wondering if I would ever even be able to have a baby in the future, and as I told the Lord how I was feeling a peace just washed over my heart. No other words or pep talks have given me that same sense of assurance, and I know it was a gift from God - that peace that surpasses understanding (Philippians 4:6-7).
Since then I've been thinking about the multitude of pregnancies and babies that have been bombarding me as of late, and I realized that the Lord wouldn't put all that in my life at this precise time for no reason. When the same thing keeps hitting me over and over again it's most likely because the Lord is trying to teach me something.
I think I figured it out. The other day as I was mulling this over, this verse came to mind:
"For I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want."
Philippians 4:11b-12
Paul had been through many different kinds of persecution and trials, worse than anything most of us will experience, but still he was able to say that he had learned the secret to being content, no matter what situation he was in. I just realized as I looked up this verse today that he never really said what the secret was. Maybe it's one of those things that you can't really teach per say, but each person just learns it or doesn't learn it on their own.
However, I think contentment is one of those things that the Lord very much wants us to learn. He wants us to learn to be content and trust in Him, no matter what is going on in our life. Sometimes I think our trials or heartaches, or even something silly like being surrounded by babies at a time when you can't have one, are sent to us by God so that we can learn to trust Him and be content whatever the circumstances.
When that verse came to mind the other day, I knew the purpose in this was that very thing. I am not able to have a baby the way things are now, and there's no saying when that will change. I want to have a baby someday, and there are easily a dozen women around me right now that have the very thing I want and know I can't have yet. But I think I've learned to be content with my life, and where the Lord has me right now, in spite of that.
Rarely does learning some spiritual virtue come easily for me. It usually takes months or years of trial and error, of succeeding and failing, before I can make a good thing an actual habit so that it is just natural to react or think in the correct way. But somehow learning to be content in this situation came suddenly, without any practice or striving for it.
Maybe that's just the nature of learning to be content with your situations. It's not something that sneaks up on you through small, everyday successes, and then one day you wake up to find that you've largely obtained that quality, as it seems to work with patience or kindness. Contentment seems to be obtained through great inward struggles that build until you reach a point where suddenly it strikes you that God always has a plan and a purpose. Once you realize that, and actually believe it and trust God that it's true, then contentment is just a natural reaction.
In order to be content, you must first accept that God knows what He's doing, and He works all things out for the good of those that love Him and are called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28), and then you must actively choose to trust Him - and once you've done that contentment is easy.
Sometimes I think it's easier to lean on the Lord and be content in the midst of the greater trials of life than it is to be content with small struggles or wishes that haven't come true. It seems easier to rely on His help for the big things, because you know He'll take care of you somehow, and you're already in a bad spot with no one to turn to but Him anyway.
But when you are hoping for just average, everyday things, like a baby or a better job, it's harder to trust Him, because the fact of the matter is He might not give you what you desire. He might say no. As Christians, we need to learn to accept that He might say no, but to also realize that even if we don't get what we're hoping for He still has a purpose that we may never understand, and He has good plans for us (Jeremiah 29:11). Then we are able to rest in contentment.
It's not easy to get to that place, because you have to learn to let go of what you want and instead accept whatever the Lord has for you! But once you're there, you wouldn't go back to clinging to your own way for anything, because His ways are always better.
For me, that means letting go of my anxiety about having a baby and accepting that whether I'm able to have biological children or not, the Lord has a great plan for me, and it's better than anything I have planned for myself.
I'm not saying that the next time I go through a tough time I won't have to remind myself of what it means to be content. I suspect that I'll have to re-learn to be content, to a certain extent, with every trial that befalls me. But I also suspect that it'll get easier and easier to learn with each subsequent struggle, and then maybe someday I'll be able to say with Paul that I've learned to be content whatever the circumstances.
"After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb.
There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men.
The angel said to the women, "Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples: 'He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.' Now I have told you."
So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples. 9Suddenly Jesus met them. "Greetings," he said. They came to him, clasped his feet and worshiped him."
Matthew 28:1-9
"That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved."
Romans 10:9
Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God . . ."
John 1:12
He is Risen!
He is Risen Indeed.
There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men.
The angel said to the women, "Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples: 'He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.' Now I have told you."
So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples. 9Suddenly Jesus met them. "Greetings," he said. They came to him, clasped his feet and worshiped him."
Matthew 28:1-9
"That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved."
Romans 10:9
Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God . . ."
John 1:12
He is Risen!
He is Risen Indeed.
Every year on Good Friday I like to read the accounts of Jesus's crucifixion in the gospels.
It makes me refocus my whole day, and if there is any time of year we should be focused on Jesus's sacrifice it is during this day.
One thing that stood out to me this year was how Jesus could have called legions of angels to rescue Him at any time. He said so Himself: "Or do you think I cannot now pray to my Father, and He will provide Me with more than twelve legions of angels?" (Matthew 26:53)
I'm sure there must have been incredible temptation for Him to do just that. When they were smashing that crown of thorns down on His head and mocking Him. When they were beating him within one stroke of just killing Him right there. When they nailed Him to that cross. When He was hanging on that cross, struggling to breath for hours.
I think from a human standpoint it must have been especially hard not to call angels to His aid when He was hanging on the cross and the people who passed by were saying "If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross." (Matthew 27:40) And the chief priests and scribes stood by saying "He saved others; Himself He cannot save. If He is the King of Israel, let Him now come down from the cross, and we will believe Him." (Matthew 27:42)
The thing is, He could have come down off the cross. He could have put them all in their place right there, and how could they help but believe in Him then?
But if He had done that, if He had called those legions of angels, we all would be lost. He didn't come to conquer the nation and rule - He came for one purpose. He came to die. And without his death, His entire purpose on earth would have been meaningless.
And by the spilling of His blood, the Perfect Sacrifice of Himself, our sins were washed away. We are able to know God and we are assured of our eternity in Heaven, all because of what He did on the cross, and because of what happened three days later.
He rose from the dead! He came back to life! Death couldn't hold Him - He conquered death, and He now gives eternal life to anyone who will believe in Him. "If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart the God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved." (Romans 10:9)
But none of this could have been possible if He had come down off the cross. How ironic that the chief priests said they would believe in Him if He came down from the cross, when if He had done that He couldn't have saved them. I wonder what was going through His mind when they said those words? I think it must have been just a deep compassion and probably a sadness too - they just didn't understand.
He had to die to give us life. Without His death and resurrection, there would be no hope at all. He could have called many angels to get Him out of it, but He chose to endure torture and ridicule and indescribable pain for our sakes.
Aren't you glad that He left the angels where they were that day?
"But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed." Isaiah 53:5
It makes me refocus my whole day, and if there is any time of year we should be focused on Jesus's sacrifice it is during this day.
One thing that stood out to me this year was how Jesus could have called legions of angels to rescue Him at any time. He said so Himself: "Or do you think I cannot now pray to my Father, and He will provide Me with more than twelve legions of angels?" (Matthew 26:53)
I'm sure there must have been incredible temptation for Him to do just that. When they were smashing that crown of thorns down on His head and mocking Him. When they were beating him within one stroke of just killing Him right there. When they nailed Him to that cross. When He was hanging on that cross, struggling to breath for hours.
I think from a human standpoint it must have been especially hard not to call angels to His aid when He was hanging on the cross and the people who passed by were saying "If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross." (Matthew 27:40) And the chief priests and scribes stood by saying "He saved others; Himself He cannot save. If He is the King of Israel, let Him now come down from the cross, and we will believe Him." (Matthew 27:42)
The thing is, He could have come down off the cross. He could have put them all in their place right there, and how could they help but believe in Him then?
But if He had done that, if He had called those legions of angels, we all would be lost. He didn't come to conquer the nation and rule - He came for one purpose. He came to die. And without his death, His entire purpose on earth would have been meaningless.
And by the spilling of His blood, the Perfect Sacrifice of Himself, our sins were washed away. We are able to know God and we are assured of our eternity in Heaven, all because of what He did on the cross, and because of what happened three days later.
He rose from the dead! He came back to life! Death couldn't hold Him - He conquered death, and He now gives eternal life to anyone who will believe in Him. "If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart the God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved." (Romans 10:9)
But none of this could have been possible if He had come down off the cross. How ironic that the chief priests said they would believe in Him if He came down from the cross, when if He had done that He couldn't have saved them. I wonder what was going through His mind when they said those words? I think it must have been just a deep compassion and probably a sadness too - they just didn't understand.
He had to die to give us life. Without His death and resurrection, there would be no hope at all. He could have called many angels to get Him out of it, but He chose to endure torture and ridicule and indescribable pain for our sakes.
Aren't you glad that He left the angels where they were that day?
"But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed." Isaiah 53:5
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