Carried

We heard a really cool story from one of our friends named Christine that I feel like I need to share with you.

Not too long ago, there was a man and a woman in Africa who loved each other very much. They loved each other so much that the man proposed to the woman in hopes that they could live together for the rest of their lives. Although she loved him very much, he was an irresponsible drunk and she couldn’t marry him unless he was free from that. But the man loved her so much that he stopped drinking and began taking responsibility for himself. So, once he quit drinking, they were happily married.

A few years later, the man decided that he loved drinking more than he loved his wife, so he began going out to the bars again, often not returning until the wee hours of the morning. One night before he went out drinking, he told his wife that he didn’t want her anymore and that she should take everything that she wanted out of the house and be gone by the time he got back. And with that, he left drinking his marriage and himself away.

But the woman just stayed at the house, crying to herself, not really knowing what to do. After a few hours, she came to a determined conclusion and awaited for her husband to return. When the man returned home, he was on the verge of passing out so she guided him to the bed and allowed him to fall asleep.

Once he had fallen asleep in his own drunkenness, she took the sheet that he was asleep on and used it to pick him up and sling him over her back. With this large man slung over her shoulder, bearing all the weight of him herself, she walked miles and miles through the hours of the early morning until she reached the man’s parents’ house, where she laid her husband in the bed that he had slept in as a child.

When the man woke up, he was confused at his surroundings and the people of his surroundings. Nevertheless, the first person he saw was his wife who he had asked to leave and never return. Frustrated and confused, the man asked her, “Why am I here? I asked you to take everything that you wanted out of the house and leave!”

The woman just looked at her husband, and with a longing look in her eyes said, “The only thing I wanted from the house was you. Only you.”

Christine went on to explain that is how she sees God. That no matter what we do or where we run to or how often we tell Him we don’t want Him and He should just get out of our heart and mind, He’ll just carry us back home and tell us that all He wants is us.

All He wants is you. All He wants is me.

And so often I just pass out in my drunken stupor, so drunk on arrogance or comfort or lust. And I just want Him to leave. I just want Him to take everything and get out because I’m so tired of failing, so tired of not being able to do what I want, so worn out from having to think about others and being responsible and Christ-like. I’m so frustrated with trying to figure out who I even am, so I’ll just cling to this lust or this false sense of purpose that will carry me away and allow me to find my identity in something other than Him or myself.

So I ask Him to leave. To get out and take whatever He wants from me, I just want to do what I want to do and pass out in myself.

But He doesn’t do that. He won’t abandon us.

He hasn’t abandoned me. And He won’t abandon you.

Maybe you’re still drinking bottles and bottles of yourself. Maybe you’re at the point where you’re already passed out in the sheet and you just aren’t aware that you’ve been slung over His back and He’s taking you home. And maybe you’re just about to sit down at the bar where they serve three-time-distilled selfish-ambition, and you’re so tired of the life you're living.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned, God is there in it all. Crying over your unfaithfulness. Planning to bring you home. Carrying you on His back. Explaining to you that all He wants is you.