"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?" Romans 8:35
"Shall tribulation . . . ?" Tribulation is never a noble thing; but let tribulation be what it may - exhausting, galling, fatiguing, it is not able to separate us from the love of God. Never let cares or tribulations separate you from the fact that God loves you.
"Shall anguish . . . ?" - can God's love hold when everything says that His love is a lie, and that there is no such thing as justice?
"Shall famine . . . ?" - can we not only believe in the love of God but be more than conquerors, even while we are being starved?
Either Jesus Christ is a deceiver and Paul is deluded, or some extraordinary thing happens to a man who holds on to the love of God when the odds are all against God's character. Logic is silenced in the face of every one of these things. Only one thing can account for it - the love of God in Christ Jesus. "Out of the wreck I rise" every time.
This passage touches my heart in ways I can't even quite explain. "Some extraordinary thing happens to a man who holds on to the love of God when the odds are all against God's character."
What are you walking through right now that is making you doubt that God is who He says He is? Have you been asking, "Where IS He? Why me? How could a loving God allow this?"
You may have heard me encouraging you to stand strong when you are going through a hard time, and playing songs like "What Faith Can Do" by Kutless.
And you may have thought that it's easy for me to say, that maybe they are just happy words tossed out over the intro of a song. I struggle, just like you, and there are days when my faith is shaky and I wonder if God has forgotten me. I wish you could have seen me last night. Dallas and I sang and said our evening prayers, and then I sat beside him as he went to sleep, still praying. I am coming out of postpartum depression, just found out my husband will be away from us for at least three months throughout the rest of the year, and discovered two new lumps in my breast (I was treated for one, which thankfully turned out to not be serious, a few months ago). I came to a point, though, where I didn't even know what to say to God, because my heart was hurting so much, and I just cried into Dallas's hair, which smelled like Fresh Baby (can we find a way to bottle that, please?).
I trust that God can take my pain. That He can handle it, and that He has allowed it for a reason that I do not know at this point. What I do know is that I want to find out what this extraordinary thing is that will happen to me when I trust God's heart when I am scared, lonely, vulnerable, or in pain.
I want YOU to know...really KNOW...that God is real.
And that He understands what you are going through, because He went through it, too.
And that He has allowed whatever it is into your life to bring Glory to Himself.
And that He loves you beyond what you can even imagine.
And that He can handle your questions, and even your anger.
I love the lyrics to Better Than A Hallelujah by Amy Grant, because they are so very honest:
God loves a lullaby
In a mothers tears in the dead of night
Better than a Hallelujah sometimes.
God loves the drunkards cry,
The soldiers plea not to let him die
Better than a Hallelujah sometimes.
We pour out our miseries
God just hears a melody
Beautiful the mess we are
The honest cries of breaking hearts
Are better than a Hallelujah.
I pray that our music wraps around you like a warm blanket (a snuggie, even) today as you deal with the stuff of life. And please let us know how we can pray for you, okay?
On a lighter note...I was looking through a parenting magazine, and even though Dallas is only six months old, I about had a panic attack wondering what summer camp I will send him to one day. Cooking! Theatre! Spanish and Mandarin Immersion! Sports! Math! Can too many choices ever be a bad thing? And what are you doing with your kids this summer?
