MY HIGHER BASEMENT

Can anyone truly go through life without occasionally feeling low? I did say one had to life in an emotional basement, just that we all find ourselves in such a position from time to time.

I’ve known people who love to be positive. And I’m not against that form of thinking. I just feel it ought to be realistic. If you try to claim and believe you will never stumble and fall you take the issue of thinking positive to a level of from my view being just an exercise of control.

Being positive in a balanced way is to embrace the fundamental of what makes faith truly a foundation in life. It isn’t our control or strength that always determines our fate. We do make choices, but at the same time God is truly lord over life.

What makes the emotional basement such an important part of the life of faith is because when we are down it is the time when we can truly embrace the issue of turning to the Lord for trust. That is if we chose to find the higher point and purpose of the basement instead of simply sitting there and feeling sorry for ourselves.

I myself am far too prone to find a basement of feelings even when things are going well. I attribute this in part to my poetic soul. It craves those dark crevices to vent the verses of pain as an emotion. That isn’t always a good habit, but I find the longer I live the more I am prone to also pause in the midst of this reflection to allow the Lord to remind me to always take time in the basement to look out the window. Essentially to look up and see the Lord’s hand above all working his will over every situation.

Why is it we sometimes set for ourselves a presumption that God’s involvement always means things will work to our favor. So when we are in the basement of tears of sadness we somehow expect it means we feel when God answers our prayers things will get perfect.

But what if God is using the basement to teach us something we need to know? Ah, that might be possible. It just doesn’t always translate into the type of lesson that is as appealing to us as the kind where we get rescued from the basement by a ladder that lifts us to some blessed staircase that we decides equals the greatest form of joy.

What if God wants us to sit in that basement for the purpose of understanding something about ourselves. He has his mirror there so we can take time to see what he sees so deeply in our soul. Only we’re too busy griping and whining about the basement to take time to see what he wants us to see.

And the worse thing from our point of view is that God can make sure we don’t leave that basement till we understand it by his standard or desire. That doesn’t mean we will always jump and down with happiness over that process, but it does mean we fill not rise from such a place till we finally open our soul’s eyes as God’s desire. Look for the true blessing when one falls into a basement. Sometimes the gold we fill our heart with is far richer than the type that we use to line our pockets.