Three Little Letters

I thought I’d invite along a guest to post this fortnight – partly to give you a break from my thoughts but mostly because I read this today and was incredibly encouraged and challenged by it. I know I’m not the only one God wants to speak to through it.

Jeshanah Grace, my guest blogger, is not only one of my closest friends but also happens to be one of my younger sisters, and I’m super thankful to her not only for writing this but for letting me share it with you all! You can read more of her posts at pillowsandboats.blogspot.com.au.

Three Little Letters

It’s crazy the power three little letters can have together. On their own, they are nothing special. They are like any of the other 23 letters in the alphabet. But put them together, and they have the power to change you.

Y. E. T.

These three letters have the power to change your perspective. They have the power to shine light in the darkest situations. They have the power to bring joy in the pain, peace in the chaos, patience in the waiting. Three little letters. HUGE power.

It is so easy in our stories, to live in what I’ve just decided to call, the ‘life before yet’. ‘Life before yet’ is characterised by disappointments, unfulfilled dreams, pain, sadness, loneliness, frustration, emptiness. We don’t like living here, and yet for some reason, it is so easy to become stuck here. It somehow seems familiar, safe even. We wish we didn’t live here but then it seems less scary than the thought that our dreams may actually come true, or worse, they disappoint us. Crazy.

Everyone has a different story about ‘life before yet’. For Asaph of the Bible, he tried tirelessly to live a life of goodness, only to be met with trouble and pain while the wicked around him prospered. The prophet Habakkuk was down in the dumps over the evil of Judah. Then there’s Job. He had lost all his children, all his servants, all his livestock and was now physically suffering from painful boils. How much lower could he go? For these people, ‘life before yet’ was depressing, painful, frustrating, unrewarding.

But they didn’t stay there. No, they fronted up to their situations with those three little letters: yet.

Asaph: ‘My flesh and my heart may fail, YET God is the strength of my heart.’ (Psalm 73:26)

Habakkuk: ‘Though the fig tree does not bud, … YET I will rejoice in the Lord.’ (Habakkuk 3:17-18)

Job: ‘Though he slay me, YET will I hope in him.' (Job 13:15)

With their weapon of ‘yet’, they came up strong, full of faith. They moved from living as victims of their worldly situations, to living by the strength of our powerful and eternal God. Their situations didn’t necessarily change. Their hearts did; their perspectives did; their stories did; all by a choice to use those three little letters.

What’s your ‘life before yet’?

For me, I am facing disappointments and unfulfilled dreams, or rather, YET-to-be-fulfilled dreams. But rather than slopping around in the mud of ‘woe is me’, may my prayers be filled with many ‘yets’.

I don’t like my situation, YET I thank God for everything he has given me. My dreams lay in waiting, YET I know I am not forgotten nor forsaken because of His promise. I feel weak and helpless, YET my God is my strength and my song.

Don’t live in ‘life before yet’. That’s not really living. Use those three little letters and stand strong in the faith!