One night I had a dream--
I dreamed I was walking along the beach with the Lord
and across the sky flashed scenes from my life.
For each scene I noticed two sets of footprints,
one belonged to me and the other to the Lord.
When the last scene of my life flashed before me,
I looked back at the footprints in the sand.
I noticed that many times along the path of my life,
there was only one set of footprints.
I also noticed that it happened at the very lowest
and saddest times in my life.
This really bothered me and I questioned the Lord about it.
"Lord, you said that once I decided to follow you,
you would walk with me all the way,
but I have noticed that during the most troublesome times in my life
there is only one set of footprints.
I don't understand why in times when I needed you most,
you should leave me."
The Lord replied, "My precious, precious child,
I love you and I would never, never leave you
during your times of trial and suffering.
When you saw only one set of footprints,
it was then that I carried you."
This is a poem that's published again and again: on bookmarks, calendars, wall hangings, etc. We all love to read this poem and think, "Oh yeah, I can think of the times that I trusted God to carry me." But do any of us want to admit to the times that we didn't trust that God would carry us? The times that we thought we were handling everything on our own?
ReplyDeleteI grew up with a beautiful poster of this hanging on the wall. It's my Mother's favourite poem. None of us ever want to admit that we can't do it alone. It'sboth a strength and pride thing I think. I know that I am selfishly guilty of believing I can do everything by myself! Haha. (Don't tell anyone... But I can't! Hehe.) I think EVERYTIME we believe we are handling things alone, God's always the one doing the heavy lifting. God's just there waiting for US to realise this, he's the one who already knows.
ReplyDeleteI have been down some very hard roads the last year and a half and its been challenging and I thought for the first part that I was doing fine. I was just trudging along working towards the end. But as the road got harder and I started to stumble its when I realized that I hadn't been walking alone and the parts that were getting easier where actually when I had just given everything over to him.
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