God is enough

Disappointment.

Even the word sounds depressing.

We've all been disappointed.

In some form or fashion, we all walk through life when things come our way that take the wind out of our sails, even to the extent of knocking us down emotionally and mentally.

I know that you have gone through times of disappointment.

It's during those times that the question always comes, "is God enough"?

Little kids experience disappointment.

In A Christmas Story, young Ralphie wants a Red Ryder BB gun, but his parents' only response is, "You'll shoot your eye out!" All the adults in Ralphie's life seem united in keeping him from this dream.

At school, Ralphie's teacher asks the class to write a theme paper titled, "What I want for Christmas." Ralphie's face beams with joy as he sets about to write the greatest theme paper ever submitted in an elementary school. When he turns his paper in, we hear his thoughts: "I was handing Miss Shields a masterpiece. Maybe Miss Shields in her ecstasy would excuse me from theme writing for the rest of my natural life."

Ralphie is convinced he has submitted his magnum opus. He imagines the teacher reviewing one bad theme paper after another in dramatic disgust, until she finally comes across Ralphie's paper. The teacher is swept away by Ralphie's submission.

"Poetry! Sheer poetry!" she exclaims, writing A++++++ across the blackboard, as Ralphie is hoisted into the air by his classmates.

Later, his teacher lays his graded theme paper on his desk. The grade on his paper is a C+ . Ralphie is devastated. Worse yet are the words written underneath in red pen, "You'll shoot your eye out."

I can relate to Ralphie.

Now on to we "grown-ups." We "grown-ups" experience disappointment as well.

It comes. The question is always not, "will I be disappointed" but "how am I going to handle the disappointment that comes?"

We can be disappointed with other people, disappointed because goals haven't been met, and even disappointed with God because he doesn't do what we think he's going to do.

Sheila Walsh (of the 700 Club T.V. fame) writes this:

"I got one of the most interesting letters at the 700 Club from a young woman in her mid-twenties who had cancer and MS. She said, "Sometimes I watch your program and I'm helped, and sometimes I want to take my shoe off and throw it through the screen."

I was so fascinated by her honesty, I called her. We became friends. One day she said, "One of the things I hate about what you do is you always present people whose marriages get better in 10 minutes, people who get healed, people who have the nice, packaged answers."

She said, "What about people like me who are dying and still love God? What about people who take very few steps, but every step leaves a big impression in the snow because it costs every ounce of strength they have left?"

Sheila Walsh continues, "She changed my perspective.

Christianity is not this nice "everything's going to work out okay" attitude. When you think of Christ at the tomb of Lazarus, he wept because it wasn't supposed to be like this. He had spoken this beautiful world into existence and it was so broken, so messed up.

I think one of the greatest gifts we can give is just a dose of reality that life down here is disappointing, that God doesn't always give us answers, but he does always give us himself."

And maybe, just maybe, the mere presence of God is enough.

"Father, may your presence in our lives be enough this day."