take a breath....this isn't forever.

We want to understand why things happen and we want to know when that thing or that cure or that relief or that joy will come. We also want to be happy right now. And so when we find ourselves in the midst of a trial with seemingly no end in sight, and when we wake up and grab our coffee and look around and think, "good grief, Lord, is this it?", we doubt the God whose mind we will never understand, and we reach for temporary solutions to escape the dread of a life lived with no purpose; solutions that are not unlike the apple in the garden - ideas that look good to the eye and bring us delight, but in the end, lead us further into a despair wrapped in unshakable shame. Because we forget, or perhaps we never knew in the first place, that he who made the promise is trustworthy (Hebrews 10:23) and that God is our only source of happiness.

I came upon a quote by Saint Alfonse Ligouri this morning:

"Let us keep ever before our eyes this great thought - everything in this world comes to an end, whether it be prosperity or adversity. Eternity alone never ends."

So, if on this day of The Ascension of the Lord your eyes are fixed on that trial, or you are all consumed with the craziness of May, or that all important college year approaching, or the perfect job your child has yet to land, or the way your body is suddenly sagging, or the dream that never came true, or the bills that far exceed what you have in the bank or the simple feeling that life is nothing like you expected and your disappointment, like the bills, are stacked higher than your joy....

...take a breath. Fill your lungs with the air that is all gift from Him.

Because none of the above concerns is lasting.

God is our only source of happiness, and yes, I know I already said that but it is totally worth repeating. The enemy has fooled us and wooed us and enticed us with a world full of the temporary - one of quick fixes, band aid solutions, a buffet of ways to numb out and detach. We can shop from our desks, view pornography from our couch, get high in the bathroom, and eat everything in the kitchen when no one is looking. We can get the job, get accepted to that college, make the team, sculpt our bodies, and have enough to pay the bills. And yet still. None of this lasts.

And we are smart. We know this.

And we are human. So we forget.

It is why we are addicted and distracted and depressed. Because everything we have tried by our own strength has not worked. We live like speed daters...quickly moving on to the next, hoping and praying that "this one will be it."

But God.

He is the ONE.

He is the IT.

Our only true source of happiness. (yes, I said it again)

LASTING joy.

I am praying for patience today. And to lose the desire to understand. And for the strength to sit in the uncomfortable but not just sit in it but to desire it and praise God for it. Because God is not a God of quick fixes. He is not a genie, a magician, Amazon Prime, or an insta-pot. He makes us wait. But here is the thing...we do not wait alone. He sends us the Holy Spirit. And here is the other thing...on this day, we can rejoice because Jesus did exactly what God sent Him to do...to triumph over sin and evil and make heaven a possibility and not just a possibility but a reality.

Whatever has you tied up in knots today is temporary.

Eternity, however, is forever.

Heaven, eternal joy, is lasting.

And this Jesus?

Celebrate today what He has made possible despite our ugly and sinful and total crap we cart around in our stinky souls that we desperately try to hide beneath our yoga pants and drown in our $7 lattes.

He wants to live in eternity with us forever.

With YOU.

Even with me.

FOREVER.

And last time I checked, forever was for a really long time.