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Saturday, August 02, 2014

I Hate My Life

Not an uncommon phrase, actually. Of course, you typically hear it from an unhappy teenager who didn't get what he/she wanted or a frustrated coworker for whom life has taken an unpleasant turn, perhaps.

I actually do hate my life, but I don't mean it in that normal, typical, self-serving way. It's not that I don't have people who love me; it's that I don't love enough. It's not that God hasn't granted me many blessings; it's that I'm never grateful enough for them. It's not that I don't have a good job; it's that I don't do my job well enough ... as honors the Lord. It's not that my circumstances are dire; it's that I don't rejoice in whatever circumstances I find myself. It is neither that I'm in want or in plenty, but that I'm not frequently enough content in those conditions.

I'm like Paul's Romans 7 complaint. "I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? " (Rom 7:15, 18, 24). That's the life I hate. The psalmist writes, "O you who love the LORD, hate evil!" (Psa 97:10). That's the part of my life I hate. And until I get to heaven, that part of my life will remain. Perhaps in decreasing amounts, but never gone. That's the life I hate.

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