Where’s The Delight?
Bev Dracos
After my yearly time of prayer and fasting, I was ecstatic about my guiding word for the year. Delight…. I just knew this was going to be the best year ever. A year filled with delight. What could be better?
It didn’t take long for me to have second thoughts about this word. Things were not going well. My dad was diagnosed with cancer; my husband was going through a tough season at work. The teenagers (once my darling children) were crashing through every boundary we had established and challenged our authority each day. I was exhausted, frustrated, fearful, and running on empty.
I did have an event on my calendar that kept me looking forward. There was a writers’ conference in Austin, Tx. Previous conferences were at faraway locations, but it would be close enough to home for me to drive there this time. Anticipation was growing with each passing day. Everything was arranged, and I was ready. I had plans. I would go to the conference and distance myself from all the daily problems. My focus would be on writing. This time was going to be just for me.
Then, it happened. Somehow, in the course of my usual activities, I did something that made my back problem flare. The pain was instantaneously at an unbearable level. I did all I knew to do to get the pain under control, but as the days went by, I felt an ever-growing sense of dread. There was no way I would be able to go to the conference.
The pain and the disappointment overwhelmed me. My list of difficult life circumstances seemed magnified many times over.
I thought about that word. Delight. I knew that I was less consistent in my study of the word. I knew I was taking shortcuts in my prayer time, but what about the word He gave me? I yelled out, “Where is the delight?” Through my tears, I looked out into the atrium. There was a massive, gorgeous bloom on a plant that had never bloomed in all the years we had lived there. It had lots of beautiful greenery, and it would put up a long spike, but it had never bloomed. But there it was. Breathtaking beauty was so near, yet; it had gone unnoticed as I wallowed in my personal pity party. It was as if He was reminding me to delight myself in Him. He was there. I had taken my eyes off Him. I had allowed my circumstances to steal my joy and disturb my peace.
Psalm 37: 3-4
3Trust in the Lord, and do good;
dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness.
4 Delight yourself in the Lord,
and he will give you the desires of your heart.
Psalm 37: 23-24
23 The steps of a man are established by the Lord,
when he delights in his way;
24 though he fall, he shall not be cast headlong,
for the Lord upholds his hand.
Over and over again, I am reminded to delight myself in the Lord and delight in His way.
He is faithful when life is complicated. He is faithful when our plans don’t work out. He is faithful when we are overwhelmed. We can step back, look up, and delight in Him.
Let’s talk about it:
- What does it mean to delight ourselves in the Lord?
- How do you keep your circumstances from stealing your joy?
- Can you think of a time you missed something beautiful God had for you in the moment?
