I read somewhere that the reason shopping malls have benches is so that men can have somewhere to sit while they give up the will to live. I wonder how often guys have said the words, “I will give you five hundred bucks right here on the spot if you’ll just pick a pair of shoes right now. Any pair.”
Of course, any man who says that doesn’t understand that as the words are coming out of his mouth, the savvy woman shopper is already calculating how many more pairs of shoes that will buy. The poor guy doesn’t understand that he’s actually buying himself at least four more shoe-shopping trips. Most guys just don’t get shoe math.
We all have places in life we don’t particular like to go. There are things that happen we’d simply rather not experience. That comes along with living in a world that groans under the curse of sin. But it makes all the difference in the world when we remember that He will be our joy along the way. No matter where we are in life, no matter what the challenge or heartache, there is always a reason to praise our God. He puts the song of praise right into our mouths. David said in Ps. 40:1-3, “I waited patiently for the Lord; he turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear and put their trust in the Lord.”
For the record, “slimy pit” might equal “mall” in guy math. But whatever the pit, David waited patiently. That leads me to ask myself regularly: am I? Are you? Are we waiting patiently for what the Lord wants to do through our difficulties? Even at the mall? Or more seriously, even in the midst of piercing pain or deep sorrow?
Want a better math formula? Patience equals trust. Trust means we keep right on following, leaning all the more on Him. “My whole being follows hard after You and clings closely to You” (Ps. 63:8).
There’s victory in the following. There’s comfort in the leaning. There’s joy in the clinging. Ps. 30:5 reminds us, “Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning.”
Everything He’s doing on the inside of us keeps us joyfully going, praising as we go—never giving up. “Therefore we do not give up. Even though our outer person is being destroyed, our inner person is being renewed day by day. For our momentary light affliction is producing for us an absolutely incomparable eternal weight of glory” (2 Cor. 4:16-17).
The joy of the Lord is greater than any trial. Times infinity. Now there’s some good math. We do well when we embrace the truth that we can lean into Him, that He will be our joy and that our glorious future is sure.
Incidentally, I think the guys would do well to just go sit on the bench. And instead of giving up the will to live, maybe form a support group with all the other guys sitting on benches. n