A Great and Noble Task- Part Two

I read a blog today. A blog written by a beautiful young lady whose heart for God seems bigger than mine could ever be. The way she writes slips into my heart and makes me weep. The emotions she emits from the written page stagger me and once I again I question my own writing talent. How could I ever write like that? To take words and make something more with them? To wring emotion from the heart and make people really feel what I am trying to say? To make a difference in someone’s life because of the words I’ve written? And you know the answer I find within me? I can’t. 

The voice that never truly goes away whispers those two little words and I believe it every time. No matter what anyone tells me, no matter how much I may like something I’ve written, that voice is always there whispering doubt in and every time, without fail, I believe it.

I don’t know if I’ll ever silence the voice or that I’ll ever see greatness within my own works, but I’ve been learning something lately; that each of us has been given an extraordinary gift by God. This precious gift was given by God for the sole purposes of serving him, to bring glory to name, and to further his kingdom.

Glorious tasks, and yet I look on my gift with derision, constantly comparing it to others. I don’t necessarily see it as gift given to bring glory to his name or to serve him. All I can see are my own imperfections and weaknesses. The little voice in my head constantly whispers that I’m not good enough or that no one will ever read what I’ve written so why even try?

But here’s what I am learning: My gift was given with a purpose. Do I know what this purpose is? No. Will I ever? I don’t know. Do I believe that God will use it? Yes. Do I want to know why? Um…YES!!! I want to know that my gift is worthwhile and benefiting the world, but I also understand that there are things I may never be privy to. There is a reason why he gave me this particular gift and even though I may never know why, I will trust him.

I don’t think I’m the only one who feels this way. I think most of us are cursed with this particular weakness. We either don’t see the gift we bear or we compare it to the gifts of others effectively stopping ourselves from ever using it. 

            Comparison is an ugly thing. It robs dreams and steals joy. And yet each of us does it every day in small ways and big ways. It’s not an easy thing to get rid of and in some instances becomes a security blanket. We use it as an excuse to never try because if we never start we’ll never fail. 

            Satan uses our insecurities and fears against us because if he can stop us before we ever begin we’ll never change the world with the God. So he whispers lies and we’re all too willing to believe them because we’re prone to comparing ourselves to others. So the lies slip in along with the fears. 

I believe Satan rejoices in these moments. He does everything he can to stop us from using the gifts we been given because they are some the greatest weapons we have in the war against him. Our gifts have been given to edify (encourage) the body of Christ, to help bring a lost world to Christ, and to glorify the name of God; all things the devil hates and yet we suppress them because so many times we believe them to be inferior to the gifts given to others. 

We’re afraid that our gift won’t meet up to our expectations or the expectations of others. We’re terrified we might fail, that we might not be good enough or talented enough which causes the value of our gift to be diminished in our own sight. The sad thing is by listening to our fears we are effectively stopping the work of the Holy Spirit.

I think our lives are a bit similar to butterfly trapped in its cocoon. Just like that butterfly we’re trapped in our own cocoons of doubt, insecurity, and excuses. We have to unwind ourselves from the lies we’ve wrapped ourselves in if we ever want to achieve God’s full work within our lives. If we live within our cocoon of doubts and insecurities we’re really telling God that we don’t trust him and that he made a mistake when chose us. When we let go of these insecurities and doubts and let God have full reign of our gifts I think we must feel a bit like that butterfly the first time it unfurls its wings upon exiting the cocoon. There is a sense of freedom and joy incomparable to thing else. 

Recently I was talking with a friend who works with broken and hurting adults who’ve had horrendous pasts. She shared how there are so many days when she feels she lacks the skills and life experiences to truly  minster and reach out to the people she works with. 

My friend grew up in a loving home with parents who provided for their children not only physically but spiritually as well. A blessing she thanks God for, but there are days when the blessings come with feelings of guilt because of the pain and hurt she sees in others. These blessings leave her feeling as though she cannot truly understand and empathize with her clients. Despite her feelings of inadequacies she rejoices in her blessings and continues to push on because she knows that God has called her to this place.

She may not feel equipped to handle the mission God has called her to, but you know what I see? Where there is gloom I see a young woman shining bright for the Lord—a light that draws those in darkness in. Where the world is hard, I see softness. I see someone who is pliable in the hands of God and is growing. I see someone who is using the gifts God graced her with. Not many may notice what she is doing, but to a few she may be the light pointing the way to shore. 

Here is young woman living inside the calling God gave her. She has stepped up and begun using the gifts and blessings God has given her even when she feels insufficient. I think this is the best place to be for God uses our insufficiencies to work in marvelous ways. 

            My friend is gifted in ways that I never will be just as she will never be gifted in the same ways I am. Each of us has been made uniquely to complete a purpose God created for us long before we were a twinkle in our mother’s eyes. We just have to be pliable in God’s hands and let him work.

It’s a marvelous thing that God created us all differently with different gifts and talents. That one person may have the gift of teaching while another the gift of serving. The beauty of our gifts is that they differ so much. I know that I don’t have the gift of learning new languages or doing artist endeavors and I probably never will, but that’s okay because I know that others do. Each of us is called to work differently within the body of Christ and we’re each given specific talents to complete these tasks. 

            So many times we think that only certain gifts can be used in the work of the church. Things like teaching, serving, praying, and leading small groups, but these are only a small part of the gifts God has given us. God has graced some with the ability to work construction, run a business, or create things. These things (and so many more) may not be used in the typical setting of a church but they can be used to further God’s kingdom and bring glory to his name. We just have to be willing to be used where God calls us. 

            I also believe that God grants us different gifts at different times in our lives. Someone may not have the gift of leading when they’re young but find that later in life God has blessed them with this particular talent in order to carry out something he has called them to. 

            Just because God hasn’t graced us with a particular gift doesn’t mean that we can’t gain it with hard work. I don’t have the gift of serving but I know that God has called each of us to be servants so I work towards attaining this talent even though it’s hard and I have to consciously push myself to do it. The same with music. I can’t play piano but with hard work and determination I could learn to play and use it within the church. 

            It is important to use the gifts given to us. Just a muscle that is not used weakens and wastes away so to do our gifts and talents. They may still be present but without use they weaken and deteriorate. When we let ourselves believe the lies Satan feeds us and let our gifts fall to the wayside they often become unnoticed and forgotten never being used for their true purpose: God’s work within the world.  If we just let go of our fears and let the glory God has given us shine through just think of what we could accomplish with him in this dark world. I guarantee we will find joy and peace, even amongst hardships and trials, if we just let God work in us towards his purposes.

~~~~~~~~

                        When I was young the Lord gave to me a box; a gift wrapped shiny and bright. He smiled gently and quietly spoke, “Here is a gift made especially for you. None other has a gift just like it. It will aid you as you walk each day so use it well.”     
             At first I marveled that so wonderful a gift would be given to such as I, but once the first  awe subsided I began to worry that my gift might not be as good as those others had receive. What if it wasn’t as useful as theirs? Worse, what if when I opened my package and brought it out for all to see, they laughed instead of marveled?
             So in fear and trepidation I set my gift upon the shelf to afraid to see what God had granted. Uncertainty stilled my hand and so year upon year it sat upon the shelf gathering dust and yellowing with age. My fear held me captive despite my desire to see what lay within.
           Finally, after years of disuse, when life’s bright flame began to flicker and fade within my breast, my desire to look overcame my fear. I took the box from its shelf and carefully tore the wrapping away. With great care I lifted the lid to gaze upon the gift I waited so long to see, but to my dismay I found the box empty and hollow.
            In hurt and anger I turned to the Lord and showed him the box filled with nothing but air.
           “My child,” he gently responded, “When I gave you the box it was full, but the longer you ignored your gift the more it diminished. Your gift was not meant to be forgotten and laid aside--it was created to be used. Great things could have been accomplished with such a gift if you had just opened and used it. The only thing left now is the knowledge of what could have been.”

Roadblock

As stated in my last post I've been working on the second part of "A Grand and Noble Task," but for some reason I've been having a really hard time getting what I want to say down in writing. I've rewritten it four times now and it still doesn't flow the way I want it to. I'm not sure why it's so hard to write. Maybe Satan doesn't want me write it or maybe it's just not the right timing. I honestly don't know (although I'm inclined to believe the former).

Despite my writer's block I'm going to keep trying work on it and hopefully sometime in the near future I'll get it posted for you all to read! I just wanted to give an update as to why it's been taking so long!

In the mean time I hope you all have wonderful October! I hear we're suppose to get snow here tomorrow already. I can't say I'm too sad! ;)

God Bless,
Miranda

A Great and Noble Task- Part One

What do you fear, my lady? "A cage. To stay behind bars until use and old age accept them and all chance of valor has gone beyond recall or desire."

 -Aragon to Eowyn in Lord of the Rings.

Who hasn’t felt this way?  To feel the need to accomplish something worthwhile and lasting? I think all of us wish to accomplish something that will impact the world as we know it. To feel our lives have played a valuable and key role, not only in the lives around us, but in the lives of people we’ve never met. We long to accomplish great and noble tasks.

I think this desire is placed in every heart; to play a valuable role in an adventure and know that the story couldn’t have been completed without us. Why were we created this way? With a longing to accomplish a great and noble task when it seems like most people never do? We want to change the world and yet nothing ever seems to change. Where is the glory, the excitement, the feeling of accomplishment? We pray for God to show where he wants us so we can begin our great task of saving the world with him and yet it seems like the assignment is never given. Live goes on just as it always has and our grandiose dreams fall along the way side. Once in a while we remember them and try to pick them up again but they never go anywhere. We find we’re stuck in the drudgery of life forever plodding onward all the while seemingly watching others sail on towards better and brighter dreams.

            Helen Keller once uttered these powerful words, “I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish small tasks as if they were great and noble.” Amazing words to live by, but the problem is I don’t long to do accomplish small tasks; I want the great and noble ones. The ones people hear about, read about, and remember long afterwards. Not some piddly everyday boring ones and yet God is calling me to be faithful in the small things. 

Here’s the thing:  I hate the small things. I just want to skip them and move on to bigger and better things, but I’m beginning to understand that the small things can be just as important as the big ones. Just because they’re not noticed doesn’t mean they’re not worthwhile; sometimes the small things must be accomplished in order for the big things to come about. 

            In Ephesians 2:10 (NIV) Paul tells us that, “We are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” God has tasks for each one of us to accomplish. Whether they are big or small isn’t what’s important, what is important is the fact he’s called us to them. Sometimes we feel that our task is unimportant and unneeded, but if God has called us to it it’s more than likely more important than we realize. 

I am reminded of this every time I think of the epiglottis. The epiglottis is a small flap in your throat that acts as like a trapped door in order to stop food, liquids, and salvia from getting into your trachea. If we didn’t have this small, unnoticed flap, food and liquids would quickly accumulate in our lungs making the chances of asphyxiating much, much higher.

Another great illustration are the brakes on your car. Obviously your brakes are a very important part of operating your car. Without them your chances of getting into an accident blossoms exponentially. When you get in your car and start driving you trust that the person who worked on your car did their job and did it well, right? But what if the day you brought your car in the person fixing them decided they were tired of doing the same thing day after day. So instead of thoroughly doing their job they did just the bare minimum to get by. It wasn’t like their job was all that important after all. I mean people get their brakes fixed every day, right? It wasn’t some big exiting thing; and yet, in the long term, it was. If the mechanic doesn’t do his job correctly he could cause your death and several others. It only takes one person to forever change the life of another.

Think about the long reaching effects of this one man’s (or woman’s) decision. It has consequences that reach far beyond themselves. Still think the small things are unimportant? Sure they’re not glamorous or even fun most of the time, but they’re still so important. What we do every day affects the world around us even if we can’t see how our tasks could ever impact society or even another’s life. The epiglottis is unseen, unheard, and unnoticed, but its role is still vitally important.

We might think our roles in life small inconsequential but the smallest unseen things can make the biggest differences in someone's life; differences we may never know about. One of the greatest preachers of history (Charles Spurgen) was brought to the Lord by a shoemaker who took the place of the minister on a snowy Sunday morning. Do you think we know his name today? No, we don’t, but by bringing one man to the Lord, he brought thousands. Or what about the man who brought Billy Graham to the Lord? I bet there are very few people who could name him off the top of their head. We all want to make our mark on history but for many of us our mark may be more the subtle quiet mark left by an ordinary person living out the small tasks given by God in great ways.

Each morning awake up the reminder that words you speak and the actions you live out may mean more to a passing stranger than you will ever know in this life. So don’t give up on the small things because the everyday actions of an ordinary life may very well change lives.

-Part Two coming soon

Update

Hello all! :D

I know it's been awhile since I posted something and I wanted to give a brief update as to why. My goal this summer was to post something every week if not every two weeks but as you can see that didn't happen! Life manages to get away from me and before I know it weeks have gone by!

I currently have about 12 different ideas (if not more) floating through my head, which, if you can believe it, is actually a hindrance to actually getting anything written! I can never decide which one I want to work on next! Aside from that I am also working on a large project that I don't want to post until I have it better organized and more of it written.

So to make a long story short it may be sometime before I post again. Of course a burst of inspiration might hit and I'll suddenly have something new to post but I'm not holding my breath! ;)

I'm also hoping to revamp the outlay of my blog and add a few more parts to it, but along with having too many idea's swirling through my head I am also moving, working two jobs, and training at work for a new system. So at present I've decided to put it on hold.

I hope you've all had a wonderful summer and are looking forward to the coming fall! It's one of my favorite times of the year and I have to admit I'm looking forward to colorful leaves, cups of tea, hot soups, and afternoons cuddled up with a good book or idea to write about!


-Miranda

The Gift of Life

For those who don’t understand the life Jesus offers, what does this mean? What is this life? Nicodemus (a learned scholar) asked Jesus the same question in John 3. Jesus had just finished telling him that no one could see heaven until they were born again. This confused Nicodemus. He couldn’t understand how someone could be born again when they were old.  I’m sure he stared at Jesus with confusion written all over his face as he voiced his next question, “How can someone who is old be born again? Can they enter their mother’s womb a second time?” But Jesus wasn’t talking about a physical birth—he was talking about a spiritual birth, A birth we need because we're dying of sin. All of us are dying in the physical sense. We’re all slowly aging and some day we will breathe our last. None of us can escape that reality, but the Bible isn’t talking about our physical death. Instead it is referring to the fate of our souls. 

What does this mean? How are we dying from sin? The Bible says “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23).” It also says, “That the wages of sin is death (eternal death), but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord (Romans 6:23).” Many of us think that we are basically good; that we’ve never done anything bad enough for God to punish us for, but that’s not the case. As soon as we told our very first white lie, disobeyed our parents, or failed to return something we had borrowed our souls were sentenced to everlasting punishment in hell. 

God is a pure and holy God which means he can’t live with sin. There was once a time when men and women were without sin, but they were given free will and they chose to disobey God. In that instant they cursed the human race with a disease called “sin.” From the moment we take our first breath to the moment we take our last we are condemned to the punishment sin has placed upon us—separation from God and an eternity in hell.

But that isn’t the end of the story. God loves us so much that he gave us his only son to come down to earth as a man and die in our place. The amazing wonder of this act still astounds me; that an almighty God loves us enough to die in our place. It wasn’t an easy death either. He was beaten, tortured, and ridiculed. They whipped him (probably with a whip that had glass pieces on the ends), placed long thorns twisted into a crown upon his head, made him carry his own cross through town, nailed him to the very same cross, broke his legs, and shoved a spear through his side. 

Dying on a cross is not a pleasant death. They take 3 inch long nails and pound them through your wrists and feet. Then they hoist you into the air to hang by them. Death isn’t caused by the nails but rather by suffocation. Once you are no longer able to hold yourself up you slowly suffocate. With your arms above your head it is impossible to draw enough air in after a while. I was once told that the pain of having those nails pounded into your wrists would be 10 times worse than hitting your funny bone. 

Can you imagine going through all that pain just to save people who hated you, broken your heart time and time again, turned their backs on you, and worst of all ignored you. And yet he did it. That He would love me this much dumbfounds me. I know I’m not worthy of his love and yet he offers it freely every day. There are no strings attached all I have to do is accept it.

Where we will go when we die is up to each one of us individually. It’s not up to our grandparents, our parents, or our siblings. It is a personal decision each one of us must make on our own. So where will you go—heaven or hell? Without Jesus there is no hope of eternal life in heaven. 

So the question is what must we do to be saved? Acts 16:31 states, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.” Jesus is the hope we all need--the One who brings life to our dying souls. Jeremiah 29:12-14 says, “Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the Lord.”

Jesus is calling your name today. He is calling you to himself, begging you to notice him and his all-encompassing love and compassion. If you can feel him calling you today and would like to answer, all it takes is for you acknowledging that he is God, that you are a sinner, and that you need his saving grace. Please listen to his call. He loves you so very much and he wants nothing more than to enfold you in his loving arms.

If you accepted him today I beg you to find a fellow Christ-follower and/or church. Choosing to follow him is just the first step. Just as young children need guidance and support so to do we. 

I would love to hear from any of you, whether you made a decision today or not. Maybe you have questions or just need someone to talk to. Either way I’m here to help or listen. If you would like to contact me my e-mail is maijamae@gmail.com. If you send me message please title it “Relentlessly Pursued” so I know it’s from you. I would feel horrible if I accidently deleted a message from someone thinking it was junk mail.

On a closing note I just want to let you know that once we’ve asked Jesus for forgiveness and invited him into our lives all our sins are forgiven and forgotten, but that doesn’t mean the scars from the past are gone. We may still be broken and hurting but Jesus will walk with us through the pain as we begin the healing process. Sometimes he sends people into our lives to walk with us through the pain and sometimes he tells us his grace is sufficient, but either way he won’t leave you alone to walk unaided.

Sin, Life, and Scars

             Imagine that a plague has swept the world and there is no known cure. The disease has already wiped out millions of people and it continues to kill millions of others every day. No one is spared from its devastating touch. You watch as friends and family members succumb to its deadly grasp knowing that soon, you too, will die. The devastating symptoms are already setting in and you imagine you can feel the cool touch of death brushing your neck. All hope seems lost until one day you hear of a vaccine that can cure the disease. Stories are circulating of those who received the vaccine and are now completely cured.

This rumor, for that’s all it is at present, shoots a bolt of hope through you. You immediately begin searching for any sign that this story could be the truth. You search for days following any lead you can find, until finally you discover the stories are indeed true. Now that you know the truth nothing will stop from you from getting this vaccine for yourself. You scrap everything you have together to pay for the medicine knowing that such a cure will probably cost you all you own; but when you get there you find the vaccine is free. All you had to do was show up and ask.

If this scenario was true wouldn’t you do anything to attain the medicine? Wouldn’t you stand in lines for days just for the hope that you might be one of the lucky ones to receive it? And if you received it wouldn’t you want to shout it from the rooftops? Wouldn’t you want to tell everyone about the wonder of this cure? How the power of it saved you from the very clutches of death. What I don’t imagine you doing is going home, locking yourself up inside, and never telling a soul. Such a huge life changing transformation would make us want to tell everyone we met about it and where to find it, especially our loved ones. 

If you had the knowledge to bring life back to the dying wouldn’t you? Because you do, right now, in the here and now. The world over is dying of a plague called SIN. It sweeps over the hearts and lives of men, women, and children. No one soul is spared from the ugliness of it. It brings only death, but in the darkness there is hope for there is a cure for this life consuming illness. Jesus is the cure. He came to be the remedy we all need so desperately.

So the question is why aren’t we sharing it? This joy is completely awe-inspiring and life changing and yet we never utter a word to a hurting and dying world. If this plague were real in the sense of the scenario above we’d be doing everything in our power to save those we know and probably even those we don’t.

            I’m sure this analogy has been used many times before, but I wanted to add something else. Sin leaves wounds—either ones we’ve caused to ourselves or ones caused by others. Sin can leave behind scars just as many diseases leave disabilities and scars in their wake. A lot of the time we see these as handicaps that God can’t use, but it is the broken spirit that he most often uses (2 Cor. 12:7-10). 

Most of us have become adept at hiding our wounds because they often leave us feeling vulnerable and defenseless. We put on our shells and build up our walls. But just because we hide our hurts doesn’t mean they aren’t there. Everyone has wounds; some of us just hide them better. Some are less severe than others, but everyone has scars that mar their hearts and souls. It’s impossible to escape them in this world. Some wounds may be mere scratches while others leave deep gashes through our very souls. The good news is that all wounds can be mended over time, but the truth is the deepest ones will always leave scars. They will be a part of who we are no matter how much we might wish otherwise. These scars may shape us and make us into something altogether different, but that doesn’t mean we can’t be healed, that we can’t be used. God can use these scars in ways we can’t even imagine. We may see ourselves as broken beyond repair, unusable for anything good, but God sees it so differently from us. 

The country duo, Thompson Square, sings something very similar to this in their song “Glass.” The chorus particularly speaks to the subject: 

We may shine,

We may shatter,

We may be picking up the pieces here on after.

We are fragile,

We are human,

We are shaped by the light we let through us.

We break fast

‘Cause we are glass.

We are shaped by the circumstances around us and so often those situations leave us feeling battered and bruised. Sometimes the hurt done to us is just too much and we’re left feeling as though we’re forever picking up the pieces; wondering if we’ll ever feel whole again. The problem is we’re fragile beings. Just as glass breaks easily so too do we; we are easily hurt and it’s hard to piece our hearts back together once they’ve been shattered. It doesn’t take much to splinter a mirror, a glass, or a window. Too much pressure and we’re left with spidery fingers spreading out across a formally perfect surface. Our hearts are very similar. It doesn’t take much and we’re left with scars that will always be there. 

            However, there is hope in our brokenness. Just as a beautiful mosaic or a breathtaking stain glass window is made from broken glass so too can we be made into something new and beautiful. Our brokenness doesn’t have to be the end- it could be just the beginning. It is in our brokenness that God truly works. He takes the weak and broken things of this world to truly let his glory shine forth for the world to see (1 Cor. 1:27-29).

            Just think of the all the people in the Bible that God used that we would have written off from the very beginning. Rahab was a prostitute. Joseph was betrayed by his brothers and sold as a slave. Not only that but he spent seven years in prison. David was an adulterer and murderer. Paul persecuted the church. The Woman at the Well had gone through 5 “husbands” and yet God used her to bring her town to himself. Everywhere you look in the Bible God is used broken people to work his purposes. 

            Notice how all of these people were broken before God chose to use in big ways them. They weren’t perfect, they definitely weren’t whole, and I’m sure there where days, maybe even years, where they felt as though the world was falling down around them.  That is the point though--we must be broken before the true work can begin. Psalm 51:16-17 states,“You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise.”

            A couple of months ago this point was brought up by someone in my parent’s church. She used the analogy of tilling her garden as a comparison to our lives; that just as the earth is broken to make it pliable and fertile, so too must we be broken. We can’t begin to plant our gardens until we break up the ground. Once it’s soft and pliable only then can we plant our seeds. It’s from this broken place that fresh vegetables and beautiful plants start. Just as these began someplace scared and broken and came out whole, so too can we. It is through the breaking of the soil that we receive new abundant life. Our scars are a great place for us to beginning growing. For from scars new life can begin and fresh things sprout.

It is also through our broken times that we grow closer to God. It is in time of pressure, hardship, and hurt and that we seek out the Lord the most. God gives us these times to test us (1 Peter 1:6-9), discipline us (Heb. 12:5-11), and bring us closer to him (Psalm 34:18). True these moments are not what we would have chosen, but they are needed for us to grow in him. 

In 2 Cor. 12:7-10 Paul pleads with the Lord to take away an affliction he is suffering from. The Lord responds and tells Paul, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Instead of complaining Paul responds with a much more positive attitude. In verses 9-10 he writes, “Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I will delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” How many of us have this attitude when it comes to our own sufferings and hurts? We beg and plead with God to remove them, but maybe we’re looking at our problems the wrong way. Maybe we need to start seeing that God is at work and start rejoicing in what he is doing. It doesn’t mean the situation is going to be any easier, but the attitude we choose can change how we see the circumstances.

There is comfort in the pain though. God gives us many promises throughout scripture that he is with us through the pain. 

Psalm 34:18 states, “The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.”

Psalm 9:9-10 “The Lord is a refuge for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble. Those who know your name trust in you, for you, Lord, have never forsaken those who seek you.”

Jer. 29-11-14b “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. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.  You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,” declares the Lord.”

Isaiah 43:1b-3b “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze. For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.”

           1 Cor. 4:16-18 “Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal."

            All through the Bible God gives his promise to be with us through it all. The ups and downs, the high points and the low points, the deserts and oasis’, the storm and the calm, he’s going to stick with us through it all. Nowhere we go is outside of his reach (Ps 139:1-18).

            God is going to be with us in the breaking and in the healing and he’s going to use the experience to bring glory to his name (1 Cor. 1:26-29, 2 Cor. 12:7-10). We just have to learn to be pliable even when we don’t understand and it hurts like crazy.

 "GLASS" by Thompson Squared