What Happens When You Can’t Hold It Together?

Posted on Aug 31, 2017 Topic : Inspirational/Devotional, Women's Christian Living
Posted by : Ruth Chou Simons

One of my favorite places on earth is unreachable without a four-wheel-drive, off-roading vehicle. You won’t see tour buses. No tickets are sold for it, and there isn’t a concession stand available for visitors. Topping out at almost 12,000 feet in elevation, Columbus Basin, in the La Plata Canyon of western Colorado, takes my breath away. I’ve stood at the Taj Mahal and the Great Wall of China, but man-made monuments pale in comparison to the majesty of God’s declaration of sovereignty through His creation. Standing at the edge of a mountain range firmly and gently reminds me that the Creator is God, and I am not. And that in itself is where His provision begins.

Most of my unhappiness or concerns in life can be traced back to this one question: Who holds the details of my life together? What if I can’t juggle it all? And so the Lord paints sunsets across the skies, dabs spongy moss throughout the hills, and fills the creek with overflow that trickles into hidden waterfalls… all as if to whisper:

“I take care of the needs you don’t even know to ask for. Trust Me.”

He’s holding us together by His sovereign grace; we just need to look up long enough from our frantic agendas, news feeds, and pursuits to recognize all that declares His care.

God makes us needy that we might find Him generous; He allows us to feel too weak to handle all the details that we might delight in His sovereignty. His attributes and provisions are most clearly seen through the lens of necessity, and He makes that abundantly clear to us through creation. The God who provides the rain to fall and the sun to rise provides for our daily needs. The clothes on our back, equally with the cover of wildflowers that line the streams of the canyon, display His provision of beauty and blessing.

You may feel as though you are juggling more than you can handle. Maybe you need to say no to some wonderful things or reprioritize your time. Maybe you need to adjust your expectations or reframe your heart’s desires. But maybe the only thing that must change right now is internal—a reckoning that God cares about you on the macro and micro level. He demonstrates it through His provision for you in daily details you may not recognize unless you stop to consider them: the warm meal on the table, the gas in your car, the friend who checks up on you in the middle of the week, or the refreshing rain that falls. You’re held, not because you can handle it all, but because Jesus can. If He can hold all things together—the skies and all living things—He can hold you.