desolations

“Come and see the works of the Lord, the desolations he has brought on the earth.” (Psalm 46:8) God not only works through consolation, but also through desolation.  At times, he brings us down into the dust so that he can build us up.  He tears us apart so that he can put us back together.  Sometimes desolation accomplishes things in us that consolation cannot.  For instance, as a wise saint once said, “It takes a ton of humiliation to get one ounce of humility.”  But who wants to be humiliated?  Only someone who really wants to be humble.  The desolation of humiliation leads to the acquisition of true humility.

The fact is that it might be easier to “Come and see the works of the Lord” through desolation than it is through consolation.  Maybe we really are refined by fire.  Maybe trial and error, pain and suffering, sorrow and sadness, flaws and frailties, brokenness and neediness, form us into the image of Christ much more than comfort and ease.  The hard things in life are the ones that either make us or break us, or maybe even break us to make us.  To make us real, to make us vulnerable, to make us open, to make us true.

Maybe the thing God really cares about is making us humble and meek.  Maybe he is helping us become poor in spirit.  Maybe he takes us to the bottom in order to help us let go of our constant need to get to the top.  After all, the least are the greatest in the kingdom.  Maybe he’s trying to take us so low that we become unoffendable, holy fools, a non-anxious presence in this world.  Maybe he just wants us to trust him fully, to see that even in the times of desolation he is at work.  Maybe he just wants us to recognize that he both meets us and makes us through the desolations of our lives.