Psalms 139:1-6, “O LORD, thou hast searched me, and known me. Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off. Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O LORD, thou knowest it altogether. Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid thine hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it.”
I was thinking today about all the awkward, embarrassing and strange little things that have happened in my life, that hurt my feelings.
For example: When I moved to Pensacola in 2021, I shopped at Walmart for the first time in decades. I had lived on the island of Guam for 17 years, where there is no Walmart store. So, I went to one of Walmart's self-checkout machines. I scanned each of my item's barcode and I heard the scanner beep. I scanned all of my several dozen items. When I finished I went to swipe my credit card, but only then did I notice that the machine was closed. I looked up and saw that the light was red instead of green, which up until that time I didn't understand what those lights meant. When I realized the mistake that I had made, I heard a mother and daughter laughing at me in the checkout line next to me. That hurt my feelings.
I'll give you another example. I ordered something recently. The item came this week through UPS and required my signature. When the UPS man came to my door and asked me to sign, I signed only my first name. I have no idea why I didn't sign my last name also. In hindsight, I am always suffering in neck pain, and I take prescription medications, and I get a bit nervous around strangers, so I think all those things factored into the reason why I only signed my first name. At the store I usually just scribble my name, which is not even legible. The driver asked me if my last name was "Stewart," and I confirmed that it is. He then told me to have a nice day, and I said likewise. Nothing bad happened. There were no unkind words spoken. But because I forget to sign my full name, and he needed to ask if my last name is Stewart, it hurt my feelings.
I am sure that you also could share with me umpteen similar awkward moments. I could literally share hundreds more with you, that hurt my feelings. This is just a part of life dear friend. We cannot escape our frail humanity. I am writing this blog to help and encourage you, because I suspect that many people go through the same hurt feelings that I do. I have to counsel myself when such awkward moments occur. I remind myself that nothing bad actually happened, it was just an embarrassing moment. I remind myself that there's a lot of hurting people in this world, stuck in wheelchairs and dying of cancer, with real burdens.
Our text Scripture passage from Psalms 139:1-6 is one of my favorite, because it confirms that God monitors my life 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Nothing escapes the eyes of God. Nothing ever happens where God needs to apologize that he missed it because He was distracted elsewhere. As only God can do, and in ways we cannot even begin to possibly understand, God can give millions of Christians His undivided attention at the same time. That is amazing!
I am now 57 years old. There have been thousands of times in my life when I got my feelings hurt. There are things which happened in my past, that still today pain my soul when I am reminded of them. I "Throw The Cross Into It" (an excellent MP3 sermon by Pastor Jack Hyles). Hurt feelings are a part of life. Awkward and embarrassing moments will happen, and they are unavoidable, regardless of how much we may all try to prevent them from occurring. The reason why we cannot prevent them is because we cannot know every thing that there is to know. We are not omniscient like God is. I cannot even remember what I ate the day before most of the time. People ask for my phone number and I pause, because I never call myself and cannot remember my number quickly.
So when those small awkward, strange and embarrassing moments in life happen to you, remember friend that you are definitely not alone. I have them all the time too. Just focus on Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith (Hebrews 12:2).
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