I have been attempting to write this blog for several weeks now, but have had to wrap my head around it. It seems as if things come in waves. You know, things are going good…life is happy and then WHAM! Something knocks you down. Then before you can even begin to get up again, something else comes along and WHAM! Another one. It seems like seasons of suffering…seasons of pain. What do we do with these seasons? What are we supposed to make of them? I have pondered this for about 2 months now. I have one thing after another after another after another. And I still don’t have an answer to the question posed, so if you came here looking for one, I am afraid you will leave disappointed.
I do know that in the midst of hurt is when we can feel God’s presence most. I do know that his word states “blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of God.” Why would he make a point to put this in his word for us? He wants us to know…”hold on during that pain, hold on during that hurt…you have something so much greater in store”.
Job tells us “but he knows the way that I take and when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold” Gold goes through a tremendous amount of pressure to come forth as pure. I guess it’s that way with us. We cry out to God to make it (whatever our “it” is) stop. We cry out to him to make his presence known. We cry out for forgiveness and a little bit of peace. That’s fine. But, what if we look at it a different way? What if we look at it as every tear we cry is bringing us closer to Him? What if we look upon the hurt as an opportunity for him to heal? What if we look at every wrong done to us as a chance to forgive and show his grace? Maybe then we could go through the suffering just a bit easier. Will it be easy? No way! Will there be days when we just beg God to relieve us a bit? There sure are. But, take a breath. Know he is there. Know he cares. Know there is something so much bigger at work; things we can’t see or fathom. Know he knows. Yup…take a breath and trust…knowing after it’s done, you will come forth as gold——and so will I.
