The Place To Be

"When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, 'Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.'" John 11:32


I love this verse. It jumped off the page at me this morning as I was reading. Because of recent events in my life and my recent line of thinking, I can totally identify with Mary in this instance. Her brother has just died and she knows Jesus could have done something about it if He had just gotten there sooner. She is upset and from her perspective Jesus has totally let her down. Obviously, she has no idea what is about to take place (Jesus is going to raise her brother from the dead!!), and so she is upset and is laying some, if not all the blame at Jesus' feet. BUT, she is also laying something else at Jesus' feet - herself. Yep, I love this. She is upset with Jesus because of her lack of understanding but she still falls at His feet. Even though she feels like Jesus has let her down, she still recognizes her need to be at His feet.

This is SO applicable to my station in life. I have to continually come to grips with the fact that God is infinite and I am not. I think I know best, heck, I usually think I know everything and I continually get upset when God doesn't work everything out exactly like I want it to go. I obviously have a hard time letting go of things and trusting God from time to time but even in my most faithless times, I am like Mary. I recognize that in my times of mistrust and confusion, the best place for me to be is at the feet of Jesus! It's amazing how time at the feet of Jesus brings clarity in the midst of darkness. It helps me recognize that my perspective is so small and limited and that God truly knows best. He is totally trustworthy!

It amazes me how often we struggle with the weighty things of life and faith and then continue to move forward or try to figure things out on our own. When we do this, things just get blacker and more confusing. When we finally recognize that the best place to be is at the feet of Jesus, peace always comes. Maybe answers don't always come, but peace does. I'm sure that when Mary got off her knees, she wasn't immediately OK because her circumstances hadn't yet changed but I bet she had a new peace that she hadn't had since her brother had died. Jesus was there and even though there was still confusion, there was now a new peace.

This is exactly what I have discovered in the past few weeks. No matter what the source of blackness or confusion, the best place to be is at the feet of Jesus! He can handle all of our struggles, fears, and questions. Nothing is to big for Jesus. The problems are with us. We just have to learn to let go and trust. Yep, the best place to be is at the feet of Jesus trusting in Him.