A Haunting Tale

  Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between the towns of Mizpah  and Jeshanah. He named it Ebenezer (the stone of help or thus far God has been in our help)
 (I Samuel 7:12)

Because of undealt with issues, unmet needs and unhealed hurts it may feel sometimes as if one is carrying around a ghost. Like the story of Ebenezer Scrooge, we too have three ghosts of Christmas Past, Christmas Present, and Christmas Future. The ghosts of our regrets about past decisions, tensions about present circumstances, and fears about unrevealed futures can lead to restless nights and sleepless ones as well. In the midst of all this uncertainty and unrest, God comes and speaks, "Peace, be still." But ultimately like Ebenezer, we must need face the past, we must need face our unmet expectations, unfulfilled longings.

In an earlier part of the story, Ebenezer so longed to marry a beautiful young woman, but his brokenness and wounded-ness inhibited that relationship and ultimately destroyed it. It is for reason also that his relationship with his associate, Bob, also goes badly. It must have seemed to Ebenezer that wherever he turned there was loss and a sense of incompleteness. So he hid behind any wall that he could find. In his case, he hid behind money and success. Isaiah 30:12 talks about building walls that eventually collapse upon one and leaves one with nothing but ruins; only scraps of building material providing little enough to hold a cold drink of water.

Ebenezer was a keen example of that. It's rather ironic that his name means "Rock of God" or "Strength of The Lord." But he trusted in his own wisdom, in his own abilities; he did not lean and rely and trust in God. For that reason, everything he feared, just as Job said, had come upon him (Job 3:25). He lived a miserable life surrounded by emotional and spiritual squalor, isolated and separated by people, eaten up and destroyed by the very things that he coveted. His life of greed created a cell wall around him. He became imprisoned by the very things he cherished more than people and was almost destroyed by them, except for the three ghosts.

I wonder if God allows us to be haunted for a season at least or may be just for a night by our own ghosts of regrets so that we too, like Ebenezer, can take that haunting to heart, repent and find life once again. When we make idols of our money, accomplishments, or even families, be sure that God loves us enough to allow us to experience some sleepless nights so that we can turn our eyes and hearts back to the One who alone is the Mountain of Our Salvation. As we reflect on 2014, may we also realize that all our help has come from the Lord, Maker of heaven and earth (Psalm 121:1),


Sleepless,
MJ