I don’t need different circumstances,

easier circumstances, better circumstances — I need a different Dave — a Dave content with Jesus and the circumstances He’s carefully crafted for Dave, needing nothing more, nothing different.

So, why hasn’t Jesus given me easier circumstances?  Because He’s using the harrrd, the suffering, to retrain me in a better way of living — from dependent on Dave, confident-I-know-what’s-best, what’s-thankable-and-what’s-not, to dependent on Jesus, clueless-I-know-what’s-best, trusting that Jesus DOES.  And THANKing Him for everything just as it is, and everyone just as we are.

My flesh would have me believe I’d be happIER if I lived out west, where the sky is big, the sun shines most of the time, it’s warmer, and there are FEW CARS on the road.  My flesh knows NOTHing about how to engineer happiness for me, but it THINKS it does. I don’t need a different place to live: I need a different Dave, who lives where I live, facing all I face, with surprising joy and peace, THANKing Jesus for the harrrd because I believe in Jesus’ sovereign-and-loving reign over every detail of my life.  So I’ll have something seculars want.

And Jesus has me living in congested, cloudy, SE Pennsylvania, and has me feeling rotten physiologically some of the time, to retrain me further in Jesus-dependency, so I care LESS and LESS about the things my flesh believes will make Dave happy.  Jesus is making me a different Dave — a thanking Dave, and it’s painful to be overhauled in order to experience a better life, but it’s beneficially painful, lovingly painful. Actually, wonderfully painful.

— Dave McCarty, GospelFriendships

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