It Is Dead

Death.

We don’t like it much. Habits are so deeply ingrained in us that we don’t even like to see the bad stuff in our lives die. Thank God He cares enough about us that He’s willing to kill stuff off, even when we don’t really want Him to.

In this case, it was a relationship. I wanted a relationship with this individual, but the relationship we had just plain ol’ stunk. It had started out fairly badly, and had just gotten worse. Over the course of time I had learned better ways of relating, but habits in a relationship are doubly strong, because there are two people who have those habits, not just one.

This particular relationship was so bad that on the occasions when the Lord challenged me to envision what I desired, I could not even visualize a good relationship. "What would a good relationship with this person look like?" I didn’t know. I wanted a good relationship, but I couldn’t even imagine what it would be like.

One thing I did know, and that was that the existing relationship needed to die. But how do you kill a relationship? You can say really nasty, spiteful things, and be just as mean as you can imagine. I’ve done that. It does work—at least temporarily. What I learned—the hard way—was that only God can successfully kill relationships. We may send them underground, where they’ll eat away at our souls, but we can’t really, truly kill them.

So a few weeks ago, the Lord quite miraculously killed it. Poof! Gone. Just like that. No hard, hurtful words. No anything at all. One day the relationship existed, and the next day it didn’t. Took me a few days to catch on, of course, but it was, in reality, just that abrupt.

OK, that’s good. It’s dead. But I was sort of stuck there, until I read through an article a friend had written. The Lord challenged me, the way He’d challenged her.

"Can these bones live?"

Death, you see, is not nearly as scary as we’re inclined to think it is, because the same One who kills also makes alive. I didn’t kill this relationship, and I’m not going to make it alive. But can these bones live?

I’ll admit, my faith is a little shaky, because I can’t guarantee what God will do. But these bones can live, and the very fact that the Lord killed is an encouragement to believe that He will also make alive. When things go along in the ordinary way, ordinary is what they are. But when the Lord jumps in and quite supernaturally kills a dream or a relationship or a business or anything at all, we can rest in the certainty that He sees and He’s involved.

The old is gone, and I’m happy about that.

But it isn’t enough to say good­bye to the old. I want to see the bones fastened together, with flesh on them, alive!

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