Are you having a “FroMoJah” day?

“FroMoJah” is not a new frappuccino. “Hi, yes, I’ll have a grande FroMoJah frappuccino please—extra whip.”

It isn’t some sort of hashtagy NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) Challenge. #FroMoJah2018

“FroMoJah” is a day or a moment when everything is so overwhelming you just want to sink to the ground and throw in the towel like Frodo, Moses, and Elijah felt like doing. Obviously, it’s a word I made up.

 

Frodo Baggins (Fro):

“I can’t do this, Sam.”

Moses (Mo):

I am not able to carry all this people alone; the burden is too heavy for me. If you will treat me like this, kill me at once, if I find favor in your sight, that I may not see my wretchedness.

~ Numbers 11.14-15, ESV

Elijah (Jah):

“I have been very jealous for the Lord, the God of hosts. For the people of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword, and I, even I only, am left, and they seek my life, to take it away.”

~ 1 Kings 19.10, ESV

Life eventually brings each of us our FroMoJah moments. Moments when things seem so bad you wonder if you’ll ever feel good again.

Newton’s Third Law states: “For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.” I have been trying to focus on “the elevating 8” and it is as though Satan is throwing everything including the kitchen sink in my direction to bring me down. Action: raise the mind; Reaction: Satan tries to take it down.

Maybe I have seasonal affective disorder, or maybe its just the depression talking, but there have been more than a few days when I just wanted to say, “I can’t do this anymore. It’s so hard and I just keep messing it all up.”

Now, admittedly, I have not had to carry anything comparable to the burdens of Moses or Elijah. I can’t say I’ve called fire from heaven, raised my staff to part the waters, or interceded for the people to be spared from the Lord’s wrath. In fact, when I put my troubles in perspective with Moses, Elijah (and even Frodo, were he real), my FroMoJah reaction seems a bit overboard.

And yet, I live in this world and my troubles are very real to me. It is a world of sorrows with scattered bits of light and joy. It is a world where children get sick and sometimes go beyond your ability to care for. It is a world of greed that sacrifices the health and happiness of “lesser mortals” to line the pockets of the powerful. It is a world where good people die for what seems like no good reason.

Man is born trouble as the sparks fly upward.

God knows we are but dust. He knows we are going to cry out in fear and anguish and He doesn’t beat us up. He sees us like we see our children. They too have moments when they cry violently over things that we know will pass, but their hurt is so real that we kneel down, wrap our arms around them, and let them cry until they are ready to talk about help.

Our Heavenly Father comforts us too.

Frodo is a fictional story and so God is not an actual part of it, but there are spiritual implications. Frodo’s encouragement comes in the form of his stout-hearted friend Samwise Gamgee. Sam helps Frodo carry his burden to the very end. Eventually there is a happy ending for Frodo, and he finds peace in that “far green country” (much like we will in heaven).

Moses and Elijah were real people, and God’s reaction to them should give us fresh hope. When they cried to God in frustration and discouragement, God sent help.

For Moses, God appointed 70 elders: “I will take some of the Spirit that is on you and put it on them, and they shall bear the burden of the people with you, so that you may not bear it yourself alone.” (Numbers 11.17)

For Elijah, God told him to anoint a new king and a new prophet to take his place. God explained to Elijah that He would carry out vengeance on evil and assured him of 7,000 faithful in Israel who had not bowed to Baal. God knew Elijah was tired. He came to Elijah with His great presence, gave Him a purpose, and assured him of justice. (1 Kings 19)

As Sam says in the video below, “Folk in them tales had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn’t.” Moses and Elijah and many other people from our History of Faith could have turned away from their God-given errands. They could have given up and gone with the flow of the world—but they didn’t.

Don’t give up. This is not the end of your story. Cling to God’s hand. He will lift you up, give you support, and lead you in the way you should go. He’ll get you through your FroMoJah moment to a peace that trumps circumstance.

Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised. For,

“Yet a little while,
    and the coming one will come and will not delay;
but my righteous one shall live by faith,
    and if he shrinks back,
my soul has no pleasure in him.”

But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.For by it the people of old received their commendation.

~ Hebrews 10.35-11.1, ESV