An Attitude of Intrigue

A friend recently posted about a job opportunity she was excited about, and how it had fallen through. Her attitude towards the situation was one of peace and “patient endurance”, however, rather than bitterness or shaking an angry fist at God.

This has happened to me on many occasions, so I can readily identify. Heck, between college opportunities, job opportunities…pretty much anything I’ve ever wanted to happen one way, at some point in my life went completely opposite. I can’t say that I’ve always handled it well–I do whine a lot–but the older I get and the more life I experience, the more I’ve tried to not only accept His seemingly-different direction, but to embrace it with an attitude of intrigue.

After all, if He can see the bigger picture…perhaps He can see there’s a huge rock rolling towards the end of this road, so He threw me a pebble to scoot me over into a different direction. I can sit here whining about the pebble, or I can be grateful that I wasn’t potentially flattened like some Washington roadkill.

Sometimes it’s not so pebble-and-a-rock contrasty, though. Sometimes it’s just an exercise in trust; He says jump, and we jump. He says stop, and we obey.

And sometimes He throws us the ugliest, unexpected rocks and we’re just left wondering why. Death of loved ones, miscarriages, financial instability, devastating illness…how is God ever gonna use this for good, for His glory? Honestly, He doesn’t always explain why He does things–He just does them. And He can do that, because He’s God. But before we go and get all mad at Him for His seeming capriciousness, we should step back and ask ourselves: Who is this God that we are questioning? Isn’t He the same holy and divine being who desired a relationship with us, initiated a relationship with us, and rescued us from the sin that was destroying our relationship with Him? Why did He do that? Why did He desire us?

To make His glory known through our lives. The good, the bad, the ugly–He works His omnipotence through it all and recycles it into righteousness.

Granted, we are still human beings with human emotions, and as long as we are on this earth we will experience the emotions of sadness, sorrow, disappointment, etc. But our emotions don’t have to define our attitudes; no, we can choose to have an attitude of joy while feeling sad, we can choose to have an attitude of hope during sorrow, and we can choose to have an attitude of intrigue–even despite disappointment.

Be amazed by God. Be intrigued by Him.