Drawing Lines

Just read an interesting chapter in The Scared Echo on something too taboo for us to talk about too much in out Christian circles.  Drawing lines with God.

I do it.  Do you?  When do we draw the line, most often?  When God is silent. 

Proverbs 13: 12 reminds us,

Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.

It's that hope deferred in the deafening silences of our Father that drive us to hurt and confusion and heart sickness.  And that eventually pushes us to draw a line in the sand with God.  MF says,
While many sounds can hurt our ears, I think silence is the most painful because it can hurt our hearts.  In the silence we are tempted to fill in the blanks in our lives, our future, and out relationship with God.  And that's dangerous.  In the silence we are tempted with doubt and fear, and worst of all, we may resort to the godlessness that sprouts from trying to make things happen on our own.  Meanwhile we are prone to make agreements that are not founded in truth.  Thought like God is not good, God is not trustworthy, and God does not care, sink into our souls ... Before we know what happened, anger surfaces, followed by guilt.  In an effort to handle the guilt, anger, disillusionment, and disappointment, we draw a line.  After all, lines are simple,  Lines are straightforward. Lines make us feel safe.
 
For some, the line may be not praying about a certain request anymore.  Or not praying at all.  It may mean pulling away from church because you don't want to be confronted with truth.  Or it may mean simply not opening your Bible.  It's a line that says, I dare you ... I dare you to come over that line  .... just like it was in the backseat of the car on all of those family vacations ... "Mooooommmm ... Kevin's finger is on my side of the car!" 
 
Who knows why God does what He does ... why He answers some prayers, but not others.  Why God would answer a selfish prayer and leave a heartwrenching cry for help unaided.  I don't.  But I do know truth.  And I know God's character.  And I know that slowly, but surely God is committed to erasing the lines we have both knowingly and unknowingly drawn in our lives.  He did that on the cross.  One BIG act of love added to our line in the sand ... and we find HOPE and restoration and redemption.
 

 
Snow is such a picture of redemption to me ... the white, pure covering of a dying, dirty world.  All is calm, all is bright ... all is white.  Maybe it's a good day to think about erasing some lines.