Paradise or a parking lot?

Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you got till it's gone
They paved paradise and put up a parking lot

~ Big Yellow Taxi, Counting Crows

These lyrics tend to remind us of those times when we took something for granted. We thought things would be better, but we ended up giving away our “paradise.” In the same way, we often look at circumstances in our lives through that lens- we are either in “paradise” or a “parking lot.” How often do we get angry at God for taking away what seems like something amazing?

However, recently I was struck by this realization- what if what I thought was paradise was actually a parking lot? Could God actually be doing the opposite? Could He be tearing down a paradise-looking parking lot to build us a true paradise? Should I be thanking God that He paved that "paradise?"

A year ago I was heartbroken. What I thought was the best relationship I could ever have was quickly shattered. I quickly became bitter because what was “my paradise” was now a barren, depressing parking lot. I had praised God for providing me with such an amazing opportunity and was now upset that it was taken away.  And trust me, I didn’t realize how “great” that relationship was (or I thought it was) until it was gone. In my head those proverbial lyrics were playing, "Don't it always seem to go that you don't know what you got till it's gone? They paved paradise and put up a parking lot…”

But maybe I didn’t know what I “got” because I refused to see it for what it was. It took me until it was gone to realize what the reality was in my life. Ironically, I now look back on that situation and realize it was a parking lot. An abandoned parking lot- certainly not paradise. Praise God that He took away that parking lot because He wanted something better for me. How quickly I forgot the promise found in Jeremiah 29:11- For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” God wasn’t paving my paradise and putting up a parking lot, He was pulling me out of a parking lot to bring me into the paradise of His plan.  What “paradises/parking lots” has God saved you from?

Now I find myself in an opposite situation. I feel like I am sitting and wasting my time in a parking lot of imperfect patience. I am frustrated that I haven’t seen what is “my paradise.”  It seems like paradise is just beyond the last row of parallel lines, but yet my car is not moving in that direction (or is it?). Why won’t someone turn on the engine and head straight toward paradise?

But who am I to judge what is “paradise” or a “parking lot?” Maybe what I think the paradise beyond the parking lot is might actually just be 50 more rows of perfectly painted parallel lines.  The point of all of this is that I should praise God whether I am in paradise or a parking lot…

Job was certainly in a parking lot when he said, "Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked I will depart. The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away; may the name of the LORD be praised (Job 1:21). God gives and God takes away. God prepares paradise and He constructs parking lots. However, He loved us so much that He left paradise to come to this earthly parking lot to die so we could have eternal paradise. How can we not praise Him in spite of (and because of) our circumstances. I know it feels like I’m in a parking lot right now, but maybe this is just a step towards my “paradise,” God’s plan for me. It’s all about perspective and it is God’s perspective that really counts.

Right now I am praying that God helps me to praise Him in my parking lot and in my paradise. And that He helps me to discern the difference between the two because I don’t want to only know what I “got” when it’s gone.