What to put in the 3rd drawer...




Back in 2004, a young paster named Joel Osteen published his first book..."Your Best Life Now." At the time, I remember thinking that it was probably a spiritually shallow book, perhaps popular, but lacking in depth...




Why I thought I would be an expert on the subject, I'm not sure...in retrospect, it was an arrogant and ignorant position to take on this book, or any book. I've blogged several times about things I've read in one of Joel's other books...in one case, a reader commented on my blog in a positive way, right after clarifying that she wasn't one of Joel's fans...so...whether you're a fan of Joel's or not, it really doesn't matter much to me...I'll take inspiration and encouragement wherever I can find it...but just for the record, I am a Joel fan. I love his desire to encourage people and and I love his joyful demeanor. Because I have found a great deal of encouragement as I've read his books, I want to always attribute to his writing those things from which I've found material to share...




In "Your Best Life Now", Joel talks about how we deal with our past, and the analogy he used was particularly helpful to me. If you think about your life as a filing cabinet, imagine 2 drawers:




Drawer #1 contains all of your happy memories...victories, positive events, blessings, memories that bring you joy and happiness.




Drawer #2 contains your sad memories...negative events, losses, hurts, failures, grief and disappointment.




All of us have drawers #1 and #2. Some dwell more on the happy drawer than the sad drawer, and others focus on the sad more than the happy. Some of us put everything from our past...happy or sad...in the drawer, and never look back. Different seasons in our lives call for different approaches to our filing cabinet...but regardless of the season, the drawers have something in common...they represent past events. Happenings, relationships, feelings...over which we have no control. We may periodically open the drawers and peruse the files...much like we look at a family photo album...but in just a little while, we must put the files back, close the drawer, and return to the present moment. We can't live our lives in the cabinet.




But what of this idea of a 3rd drawer? You may not have a 3rd drawer in your cabinet...but you need one.




Drawer #3 is the "I Don't Understand It" file. It can be the toughest one of all. In this drawer we must file away all of the events in life that we don't understand. Losses that hurt and confuse us, tragedies for which there is no good explanation...unresolved pain and disappointment. Whenever something doesn't make sense to you, you're going to need Drawer #3...because it seems to me, that when something doesn't make sense, that is when we most need a place to put it. A way to resolve...for the moment...the thing that is unresolvable.




If we can muster the faith to use Drawer #3, it might just help us to trust God with those things we don't understand...and to wait for the time when he is able to make all things right.




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