Why? Why so much heartache? Why so much pain? Lord, Why?
This past week has been a myriad of sad, bad news. Your people in so much pain. Why?
I know you care. I know you love beyond what we can even fathom love is. I know you have our lives in the clutches of your hands. Like clay you are molding us into what you want us to be. Help us Lord to stand strong. Help us to endure what this world throws at us. Help us to be like soft clay that you can mold us into the children of Your kingdom. All this hurts right now but it is only for a little while. If we keep our eyes on You we will see You soon. This life will seem like a small speck in Your heavenly scheme.
SOS prayer requests
Maddie Lester, three year old hanging on a thread of life in the ICU.
Luke Searles and family, sickness and lack of sleep.
The Johnson Family, battling CPS and Sonia's ex for her children.
Tara, car accident leaving them with transportation/finance worries, and family needs.
Hallerlake UMC church, loss and sickness in their midst.
Our family to know what to do with our Houdini dog (I know this one seems shallow but it is a pressing matter and serious at this point)
For every sad news and heartache there are always things to be thankful for.
I am so thankful to have had the privilege to pray for little Maddie. I can relate to the struggles her family is going through, in some ways this has been very healing for me.
I am thankful that I have been able to get a glimpse of the great faith through struggles and triumphs of the Lester family and the Searles family. It is an inspiration.
I am thankful that God has brought the Johnson family into our little group and that we have the privilege of walking with them through their time of need.
I am thankful that Tara is unhurt and that I still have her as a dear friend. That we can share together our lives even when they are not going well. I am thankful for the bond God gave us.
I am thankful for all the people who I grew up knowing at Hallerlake church. As many of them are going on to be with the Lord I am thankful for knowing them as they will always be a sweet part of my memories. I am thankful for the support, love and prayer they have shared with my family especially my parents.
As far as Houdini dog goes I can't find a thankful thing at this moment.
In my experience in life I know that the "why's" of life are not always answered. I also know that in time I get to the point that the "why's" don't matter much. To trust that God will never leave us or forsake us. To trust that this too shall pass. To trust that these trials only strengthen us and make us better children of the Heavenly Kingdom. This brings peace. This brings rest. This brings the comfort amidst the storm. As Winter Johnson (5 years old) said "Jesus is bigger".
Keep looking to Him!
Lori
2 comments:
Asking "why" is so easy to do, but I know, just as you do, it is not what God wants us to do. Trusting Jesus is so wonderful, but hard at the same time.
Thank you for your prayers for Luke, they sure do mean a lot to us.
Love in Christ,
Sue
Hi Lori,
I thought about you the other day when I read this in my Streams in the Desert Devotional book. I realize it is a long posting, but I thought it might minister to you, at least I hope it does.
Sorrow is better than laughter, because a sad face is good for the heart. (Ecclesiastes 7:3)
Sorrow, under the power of divine grace, performs various ministries in our lives. Sorrow reveals unknown depths of the soul, and unknown capacities for suffering and service. Lighthearted, frivolous people are always shallow and are never aware of their own meagerness of lack of depth. Sorrow is God's tool to plow the depths of the soul, that it may yield richer harvest. If humankind were still in a glorified state, having never fallen, then the strong floods of divine joy would be the force God would use to reveal our souls capacities. But in a fallen world, sorrow, yet with despair removed, is the power chosen to reveal us to ourselves. Accordingly, it is sorrow that causes us to take the time to think deeply and seriously.
Sorrow makes us move more slowly and considerately and examine our motives and attitudes. It opens within us the capacities of the heavenly life, and it makes us willing to set our capacities afloat on a limitless sea of service for God and for others.
Imagine a village of lazy people living at the foot of a great mountain range, yet who have never ventured out to explore the valleys and canyons back in the mountains. One day a great thunderstorm goes careening through the mountains, turning the hidden valleys into echoing trumpets and revealing their inner recesses, like the twisted shapes of a giant seashell. The villagers at the foot of the hills are astonished at the labyrinths and the unexplored recesses of a region so nearby and yet so unknown. And so it is with many people who casually live on the outer edge of their own souls until great thunderstorms of sorrow reveal hidden depths within, which were never before known or suspected.
God never uses anyone to great degree until He breaks the person completely. Joseph experienced more sorrow than the other sons of Jacob, and it led him into ministry of food for all the nations. For this reason, the Holy Spirit said of him, "Joseph is a fruitful vine . . . near a spring, whose branches climb over a wall: (Gen. 49:22). It takes sorrow to expand and deepen the soul. From the Heavenly Life
The dark brown soil is turned
By the sharp-pointed plow;
And I've a lesson learned.
My life is but a field,
Stretched out beneath God's sky,
Some harvest rich to yield.
Where grows the gold grain?
Where faith? Where sympathy?
In a furrow cut by pain. Maltbie D. Babcock
Every person and every nation must endure lessons in God's school of adversity. In the same way we say, "Blessed is the night, for it reveals the stars to us," we can say, "Blessed is sorrow, for it reveals God's comfort." A flood once washed away a poor man's home and mill, taking with it everything he owned in the world. He stood at the scene of his great loss, brokenhearted and discouraged. Yet after the waters had subsided, he saw something shining in the riverbanks that the flood had washed bare. "It looks like gold," he said. And it was gold. The storm that had impoverished him made him rich. So it is oftentimes in life. Henry Clay Trumbull
Love in Christ,
Sue
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