Are You Ever Frustrated?

by Jeremiah Tatum

From The Reminder, November 13, 2011

How do you feel when things just aren’t going your way?  You are behind on a hospital bill, the car is in the shop, and even the dog seems to be barking all night.  There are a lot of things in this life that can be frustrating.  We may not be able to get over an illness, or perhaps people at the workplace are being difficult.  Maybe we just, as one lady I know used to say, “...got too many arns in the far.”

As I was trying to keep up with my daily bible reading, I came across a passage that helped me realize what frustration is all about.  In Mark 3:1-5 we read, “And He entered the synagogue again, and a man was there who had a withered hand.  And they watched him closely, whether He would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse Him.  Then He said to the man who had the withered hand, ’Step forward.’  And He said to them, Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?  But they kept silent.  So when He had looked around at them with anger, being grieved at the hardness of their hearts, He said to the man, stretch out your hand.  And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored, as whole as the other.”

Jesus was often frustrated with people, even those who were supposed to be children of God.  We see justified anger in His demeanor, and grief because of the hardness of the human heart.  He was the Son of God, come to save the world and enlighten humanity.  “But He was despised and rejected by men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.  And we hid as it were, our faces from Him:  He was despised , and we did not esteem Him” (Is. 53:3).

It occurs to me that our daily frustrations are often trivial compared to the frustrations of Christ.  He had to clear out the money changers from His Father’s house.  He had to explain in detail His teachings to His own apostles.  He had to watch those who were His greatest supporters struggle with a lack of faith.

Being frustrated is a part of this life, and I suppose that as long as we are in the house we will groan, “earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven” (2 Cor. 5:2).  But the next time you get frustrated, see a man who hangs on a cross, grieved in His heart for the hardness of a people who wouldn’t receive the gift of God, imagine how He must feel even today when we frustrate Him with our sin, though He died for us to no longer live in bondage.  You will get over it.