The BUT

"your a princess", "HIS daughter", "a warrior", "a beautiful child"...but, but, but, but, but...

So ask me what I remember? All the buts. I requested a meeting Monday with my headmaster and well, he had a whole list of things to go over with me as if he had asked for the meeting. The best way to sum it up was I left feeling more crushed than I already had, not uplifted. I felt attacked in my spirit and my heart. NOTHING to do with me professionally, it seems all the complaints, etc.... are to my character, my passion, my gift, and in who I am. Again, it goes back to what I wrote about John 10:10, It feels like the enemy is stealing my joy, killing my spirit, and destroying my heart at the moment. But, I DO KNOW that it is CHRIST who gives me the strength right now to carry on. I am praising HIM and thanking HIM and hoping in HIM and trusting in HIM and waiting on HIM and loving through, in, and with HIM.

As I was leaving and thinking things over in my head I remembered hearing something one time about "the but". Where we live is in the but. So all the things that were said were only said to candy coat what really was the message, the message really on their hearts.

Later, I was sharing this thought with a friend and we both remembered where we had heard "the but" before. He thought it was only a part of the book, "The Rest of The Gospel" by Dan Stone and Greg Smith. This topic is actually a WHOLE chapter. Chapter 17 Titled, 'The Holy but':

People always live after the but. The word, I mean: but. Go out and listen to people talk. Everyone lives after the but, whether they are Christians or not. I don't care what they say first, before the but. It's after the but that you hear what they really believe....

...You're always living after the but. Unfortunately, Christians typically put the wrong things before and after the but. We put the God stuff before the but and our situation or feelings after the but....

...You do that, and where are you living? You're living in the junk. You're living in the circumstance. It's got you. The only thing you can hope for is a change in the circumstance. And if that doesn't come, you're up a creek. But even if it does, you still haven't learned to live out of the life of God within you. Satan doesn't care how much God-talk we use, as long as we put it before the but.

I have a name for putting God after the but, where He belongs. I call it the Holy But. Jesus used the Holy But in the Garden of Gethsemane. My paraphrase of His famous prayer is: "Father, I don't want to be separated from You. If it's possible, let Me out of it. In fact, this is so heavy on Me right now that my soul feels very depressed...
...yet...
...nevertheless...
...BUT...
...not as I will, but as You will."

That's the Holy But. the Holy But is a bridge. It moves you from the stuff you're in to faith. IF we didn't have the negative in life, we'd never exercise faith. You don't deny the negative, because it's real and it's what prompts your move into faith.

"I feel awfully weak, but God is my strength."
"I'm sorrowful, but God is my peace."
"I'm in pain, but Christ is my sufficiency."

That is some of it and the just of it. So the message I did receive was in the but. I recall when I heard this the first time how refreshing and encouraging it was. It was again this time as well. Today I even read a verse in the Bible that I felt was a good example of it.

"Though the fig tree may not blossom, Nor fruit be on the vines; Though the labor of the olive may fail, And the fields yield no food; Though the flock may be cut off from the fold, And there be no herd in the stalls- Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation." Habakkuk 3:17-18 (NKJ)

Oh, I need to add that my class is studying invertebrates in science class right now. And yes, you guessed it yesterday when we were talking about the four stages of growth (metamorphosis) our book had to use the 'butterfly'.