It’s in the Good Lord’s Hand’s

That’s what I heard the lady say as she cut my hair this morning.

She had a heavy southern accent and kept talking about her family in Pikeville Kentucky. Her mom and dad had been fighting and were considering divorce, her aunt had been diagnosed with cancer, her youngest cousin who was 4 months along in her pregnancy had just found out a couple of days ago that her unborn child had died.

Now, that is a lot to have going on in anyone’s life, and what a relief it would have been to hear this lady say that she was at peace with all of these things because “It’s in the good Lord’s hands.” But that was not the case. She said that she didn’t know how much more she could take and that she just wanted to hide from the whole world. It was obvious that she was not at peace with the situations and that she was trying to process it all by herself.

It wasn’t until the topic of the election came up that she exclaimed with disgust in the whole thing that “It’s in the good Lord’s hands.”

That struck me very odd.

She had just listed all of her family problems (very serious and tragic problems), and then talked about how hopeless she felt, but never mentioned anything about the Lord. She was shouldering all of this sadness, hopelessness, and despair all by herself without ever considering that the Lord was aware and in control of it all. And then, with much inward shame, I had to admit that I as a Christian do the very same thing. I seem to only rely on the Lord for certain problems, and try to fix others myself.  What hypocrisy!
God desires that I rest on him for my everything. How foolish to think that God is in control of, and able to handle something as big as the presidential election, but that my problems are hopeless and beyond his control.

So there I sat, brought under conviction by the words of a lady (who as far as I know isn’t saved) who was just talking about her problems while she cut my hair.

David said “My times are in thy hand: deliver me from the hand of mine enemies, and from them that persecute me.” Psalm 31:15 He recognized that his life was in the Hand of God and that God was the one in control and able to help.

He also said “Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off. Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O LORD, thou knowest it altogether.” Psalm 139:2-4.

What a joy to know that, Yes, the election is “in the good Lord’s hands”, but it is so much better to know that my life, with all of its issues and heartache, is also in His hands. God knows exactly what’s going on.

All I need to do is trust him to work it for his glory and honor.
I walked out of the barber shop with shorter hair and a heightened sense of the sufficiency of God’s grace and presence in every area of my life.