April 13

I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do, I do not do. But what I hate, I do. — Rom 7:15 BSB

Think about the brokenness, the incompleteness, and the smallness of our lives! We catch glimpses of beautiful character traits, but we can’t seem to fully attain them. We long for things that seem too great ever to come true. We dream of what we want to accomplish, but our clumsy hands can’t seem to turn those dreams into reality. We glimpse a love that is pure and tender, without selfishness, envy, or jealousy, a love that doesn’t seek its own, that bears all things. We see this love in the life of Christ and say, “I will learn that lesson of love! I will be like that!” But we fail.

We try to be kind, unselfish, and thoughtful, but at the end of the day, we wet our pillows with tears because we fall short. We catch a vision of a beautiful peace and strive for it, but no matter how hard we try, we can’t seem to reach it.

This is true of all our living. Life is always something too large for us. We only manage fragments of what we strive for. But take heart: “The desire of the righteous shall be granted!” (Proverbs 10:24) “We know that when He appears, we shall be like Him!” (1 John 3:2)