Make Me Like You

What if the salty seas overclipsing us, the roaring noise of the ocean’s torrents…

What if the unsure waters pulling at our footing….

Was to make us strong, make us more like you?

What if this valley so wide, where silence gongs, the vast, barren open, where food is scarce, water is lost…

What if this dryness in the throat from the boiling hot air, scolding us from the inside…

Was to help us to trust…and to know, you are there?

What if this windy road where jagged rocks jab and poke, the thick forrest of our soul, inching in front, unclear and seemingly dangerous…

What if this wild brush and twisting path, the bending bows, the sun unseen under the darkening evergreens…

Is to teach us you are sovereign, make us more like you?

And this journey we keep tredding, with burning calves, and bandages feet. This labored breath as we reach and seek, hope and keep asking, “Won’t you help me?”

Even your silent, is it meant to teach us, if unjust judges will feed us, then how much more will you?

What if this painstaking pleading that feels like it can’t go on…

Was the bowing that leads us to your strength?

And these wounds that we bare, some seen, others still covered….The deep ache, that silent cry…the friends who’ve lost, the pain that thrives…

What if these scars that won’t heal, the memories that refuse to disappear, the shadows that lurk when no one is near…

What if all of it, was to show us that you heal; maybe not in my way or in my time…but to know you can…and you still will?

What if the loneliness in our heart; the times where crowds gathers, but time stops…

When darkness hits, night comes, the pillow alone can’t hear us pray…the painful tears won’t go away.

What if when the world betrays and those people nearest fall away and remind us…sin still reigns…

Could it be, then, you are wanting to remind us, you don’t betray. It is then you are calling us even closer to your heart?

• Winds come, storms rage, but what if it is amidst rains and thunderstorms, and hail beating down, you are teaching us peace?
• Lies prevail, character fails, but your Word says you are good, sure, truth-filled and steadfast.

Yes, make us like you. Shouldn’t that be our prayer?

Yet, we expect the world to cater to our desired level of safety, security, our pseudo-created world…one where obstacles cease?

Can’t we look back and see your faithfulness….your hand in it all? Can’t we gather resume’s of times you have proven yourself dependable?

Isn’t the unwavering character of a God, one working and continually walking with us, more important that ease or comfort?

Yes, God, make us like you.

• Though we climb a thousand mountains, leave all provision in the base camp, where flesh used to dwell….
• Though we come here empty, naked, with no earthly protection from these harsh elements…
• Though we labor with gasping breathes, carry unending sleeplessness, and unseen pain…

You are here…you always have been….So, we will wait for you and trust.

Yes, what if our prayers weren’t; temporary safety, earthly protection, petty happiness….what if they were instead deeper, more lasting, inward, eternal, “God, make me like you.”

What if we stopped praying for God to stop our trials, ease our pain, lead us to happiness…and instead prayed, “Grow my character, my integrity, help me to surrender to your will, not my purposes.”

And what if instead of bowing to worldly possessions, asking for carnal love, material possessions, physical assets….we cried, “God, all that I am…it’s yours…just make me like you.”

Yes, I wonder how many of us have gotten it wrong…how long have “I” gotten it wrong…Pleading selfish prayers, temporary pleasures, earthly platforms…

When He calls in the wind of the salty seas, beckons in the deserts of our souls, is pleading for us in the thickness of the trees tainting our very soul. 

Yes, let’s stop wondering if He is there….Amidst the curves in our thinking, partiality of our theology, selfishness of our devotion to Him…

And know, He is waiting for us to learn, grow, ask….to be more like Him.

And what if suffering…oh the suffering linked with glory…that accompanied first-church worshippers….

What if suffering was all for the purpose of birthing more than temporary, stubborn pride….But instead, a body of believers who became humbly devoted to being more like Christ.

Yes, what if all of it….

• The mountainous journey that was never ours in the first place to climb
• The rock wall that doesn’t seem to be moving….
• The dry land, the weary soldiers, the lonely souls crying out for someone to love them…

What if it all was meant for us to call on His Lordship, a tool to lean us nearer His presence and provision, a gift to crucify our selfishness, and better mirror Christ…

And what if, when it’s all said and done…we were never meant to count our possessions, boast of man-made titles, give God an account of how grande or how great of efforts we did things for Him…

What if works in and of themselves were useless…. And He measures our journey, simply by how we loved…

Loved Him, loved the church, loved the non-believers who struggle just like us?

And what if all of it, was to coral us into a circle of love, where none of us are better than others…and all of us are desperate, hungering most for grace?

What if every trial, every pain, every heartache, every joy, was to drive us to His face, and help us crave Him more?

What if what we lack most was faith…

Faith to see the source of the River….instead of just drinking from His stream, without any recognition of the One who made it…

What if all life stems from this gratitude, a place where the proud will bow low, and the beggers will sit at His footrest, delighting in the author of their story?

What if we completely let go and started living life completely different…Because we know…

The goal was never to “fix us” but to accept the breaking with grace, so that we might die to self and rise, claiming His mercies, humility, and our new Christ-like identities.

Yes, what if all of it…all of it…wasn’t for our praise or punishment….but to simply make us, help us, grow us…

To look just a little more like Him?