Have you ever had an “Alexander” day?  Alexander is the main character the Children’s book Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No-Good, Really Bad Day by Judith Viorst.  He wakes up one day and everything that can go wrong, does.  I’ll spare you the litany of the maladies he experiences.  As the difficult day wears on, he repeatedly wishes he could somehow move away to Australia.

We all have Alexander days.  Weeks.  Months.  We experience seasons of life that wear us down physically, emotionally, and spiritually.  The struggle indeed is REAL!

Much of life’s struggle is a battle between what we know and what we feel.  During the Alexander seasons we feel worn down, defeated, hopeless.  But what we feel is not real.  Who God is, what He has done, and what He can do is far more real than what we feel.  On those hard days and in those difficult seasons we do well to focus more on the realities of God than the shadows of our feelings.

What Would God Say to Alexander?

In Bible times, people practiced what was called “lament.” In fact, there is a whole book that is one long lament. Understandably the book is titled Lamentation.  Lament – ations.  Lament enables us to own what we feel and then temper it with what we know; especially what we know about God.

It is encouraging to know that God knew there would be Alexander days (and weeks, months, years) in our lives. And He gave us a whole book in the Bible to help us through those times.

Consider these verses from chapter 3:

God is Gracious

The phrase “great love” translates one of the most important words in the Hebrew bible: chesed.  The word describes God’s covenant love relationship with His people.  It reminds us that God will always be faithful to us, even when we are not faithful to Him.  He keeps covenant with His people.

The verses also describe God with the word “mercies.”  This word reminds us that God’s love is tender toward us.  It’s easy on the Alexander days to think that God is being harsh by letting bad things happen to us.  But God is abundantly tender.  Mercy is God withholding from us punishment that we deserve. So even when circumstances are difficult, God is being merciful by minimizing the potential evil and by helping us endure.

In English translations, “mercies” is correctly translated in the plural.  But what we miss in translation in that “great love” is also plural in Hebrew.  The significance of those plurals is to point us to the truth of the ABUNDANCE of God’s love and mercies.  

No less than 11 times in the Old Testament we read some form of these words from Exodus 34:6-7:

The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands

So I encourage you on your Alexander days to remind yourself of the abundant, never ending supply of God’s gracious love toward you.  You may not feel very loved, but you are.

God is Faithful

Faithfulness is a quality that describes God as unchanging, always truthful, and always dependable.  We can always count on God to be WHO He is.  Every day the same.  God is not moody or fickle.  He does not have good days and bad days.  

Our feelings fluctuate.  Some days we are happy, others we are down.  Positivity marks us on some days, and on others we cannot seem to see a silver lining behind any of the many clouds.  But we can count on God to never fluctuate.  What we feel changes, but what is real about God is true every single day.  Even when we don’t “feel it.”

On your Alexander days, remind yourself of the times God has come through for you.  Remember how He has shown His faithfulness in the past and cling to the promise of His faithfulness today and tomorrow.

He who calls you is faithful; He will surely do it. – 1 Thessalonians 5:24

God is Good

“God is good to those who wait on Him.”  When things go our way, and the prayers are answered in the way we desired, we like to say “God is good!”  But God is also good when the circumstances don’t feel so good.  God is good even on Alexander days. (Click here to read something else I wrote along these lines).

Because God is good, we can find our satisfaction and fulfillment in Him rather than our circumstances.  Jeremiah wrote in these verses, “The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for Him.”  By “portion”, he meant that God was his ultimate possession and prize.  When we have a relationship with Jesus, we really don’t need anything else. But if we have everything else without Jesus, we are in the greatest need.

On your Alexander days, you can trust that what God is doing is good.  It may not feel good or make good sense.  But God is inherently good.  Nothing but God proceeds from Him.  Even your Alexander days can serve His purpose for good in your life.  So hang in there. 

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. – Romans 8:28

A Shorter Trip than Alexander

So if you are having an Alexander day, you don’t need to move to Australia.  In fact, the trip is much shorter – only about 18 inches.  Move from your heart to your head.  Rather than letting your feelings bully your mind, let your mind quiet your heart.  Remember what you know about God, His nature, and His ways.