Pick a problem, any problem. In fact, pick the worst one you have right now. The biggest, the nastiest, the one that will not shut up and will not go away, the one that haunts your thoughts and weights your spirits. That one.
Consider its dimensions. Estimate its size. Test its weight. Does it seem a monster big enough to eat you alive? Is it towering over you, breathing out dire consequences? Are you reduced to a mass of quivering jelly by its hot breath?
I have to confess that I have received great spiritual encouragement in this area from an unlikely source… the movie The Grinch that Stole Christmas! Don’t you, too, sometimes feel like little Cindy Lou?
She just wanted to be good, to show some compassion for an unloved creature. So she made her way to the Grinch's mountaintop lair where she encountered a bizarre brand of frightening hostility. What I love most, the picture that sticks in my mind, is her response. As the Grinch circles her threateningly, towering over her, making horrible faces (it isn’t hard), saying horrible things, little Cindy Lou gazes up at him in wide-eyed fearlessness. It baffles the Grinch, even as it astounds the viewer. Why doesn’t she run or at least scream and faint? It isn’t natural to stand up to a Grinch!
Well, I guess the answer to that question is that Dr. Seuss decided Cindy Lou should stand her ground. And no matter how big the monster in the story, the author wins. He’s invisible, but he’s sovereign.
So with the problems – the ones that circle around us breathing out threats and looking scarier by the minute. We feel like dead meat. We pray that we’ll faint and get it over with. Until we recognize that as believers we have an Author behind us Who has promised that we’ll come out okay if we don’t break and run. Who has even stepped (unseen) into that dark cave with us and promised to stay with us til story’s end.
The youth sang a powerful song on Sunday: “Never Underestimate My Jesus.” Never forget Who He is and what He’s capable of and what He’s promised and how near He is and how attentive and compassionate and sovereign and wise…
How spine-stiffening it is to recognize that this Jesus is the Author of our story and He’s decided we should stand our ground. So He’s writing our problem out with a beginning and a climax and (thankfully!) a resolution and an ending. We needn’t bat an eye at its size or its fury today. The Author wins… and that knowledge will help to turn us all into Cindy Lou’s.
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