About a month ago, during a small group meeting, my friend Kelly began to cry as she was realizing that maybe our boy's graduation wouldn't happen as we had hoped and imagined it would. Inside I thought, "well that is fine, they'll still finish high school and move onto college, what's the big deal?" Then Amanda, our usual voice of reason, wisdom, no-nonsense and not a lot of emotion says, "all losses are loss Kelly, of course you are sad". I considered again my response.
We talked about lament and praise, and that when we are healthy they will go hand in hand. Being a faith-filled person does not mean, that we will not experience sadness and disappointment; it means, that when we experience sadness and disappointment we can still praise the Lord.
The thing I am most confident of in all of my life, is that God is always good. Even when things are falling apart, when life is painful and it is not how I hoped it would be; God is still and always good. He has cemented this truth in my life and I am so thankful. This truth keeps me strong, it keeps me confident to walk towards him everyday and to not doubt who He is.
I have realized something about me though, I do not like sadness. I am quick to turn sadness to hope or justice, and skip grieving. WHY? I am afraid. What if I get stuck in sadness?
Getting stuck is very possible, IF I fix my eyes on the sadness and disappointment. But I know God is my Refuge, he is my Stronghold, he is my Rock. He is always waiting for me to say His name. And in that moment He will pull me up out of the mud and place my feet on dry and solid ground. That is just how he is. I don't have to be afraid of disappointment and sadness because as I take time to be sad and feel loss, I can grieve and confess that this is not how I wanted it, then I can hand it to God (screaming and crying if I want) and He will take my pain, He will take the disappointment and He will change it into a testimony of how great He is.
I have also learned it is so good to confess my sadness and disappointment to a friend, this action keeps me from hiding and covering up what could become harmful. James 5:16 says, "Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective". I have kept many things locked deep in me because I didn't want to share, simply because I didn't want others to try and fix everything. I have learned from this verse and Celebrate Recovery, that we need faithful friends in our lives that we can confess our sins and heartbreaks to and they will respond by taking it to the Lord in prayer. Healing is waiting because God is good.
Over and over again God gives me more than I could have asked for or imagined. He doesn't do things the way I would, his way is so much more incredible than anything I could have imagined or than any fix someone else could offer. It doesn't always mean it is nice and easy or comfortable, but His way will always leave us with a story to share that grows our confidence of how good He is.
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| My beautiful small group |
We talked about lament and praise, and that when we are healthy they will go hand in hand. Being a faith-filled person does not mean, that we will not experience sadness and disappointment; it means, that when we experience sadness and disappointment we can still praise the Lord.
The thing I am most confident of in all of my life, is that God is always good. Even when things are falling apart, when life is painful and it is not how I hoped it would be; God is still and always good. He has cemented this truth in my life and I am so thankful. This truth keeps me strong, it keeps me confident to walk towards him everyday and to not doubt who He is.
I have realized something about me though, I do not like sadness. I am quick to turn sadness to hope or justice, and skip grieving. WHY? I am afraid. What if I get stuck in sadness?
Getting stuck is very possible, IF I fix my eyes on the sadness and disappointment. But I know God is my Refuge, he is my Stronghold, he is my Rock. He is always waiting for me to say His name. And in that moment He will pull me up out of the mud and place my feet on dry and solid ground. That is just how he is. I don't have to be afraid of disappointment and sadness because as I take time to be sad and feel loss, I can grieve and confess that this is not how I wanted it, then I can hand it to God (screaming and crying if I want) and He will take my pain, He will take the disappointment and He will change it into a testimony of how great He is.
I have also learned it is so good to confess my sadness and disappointment to a friend, this action keeps me from hiding and covering up what could become harmful. James 5:16 says, "Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective". I have kept many things locked deep in me because I didn't want to share, simply because I didn't want others to try and fix everything. I have learned from this verse and Celebrate Recovery, that we need faithful friends in our lives that we can confess our sins and heartbreaks to and they will respond by taking it to the Lord in prayer. Healing is waiting because God is good.
Over and over again God gives me more than I could have asked for or imagined. He doesn't do things the way I would, his way is so much more incredible than anything I could have imagined or than any fix someone else could offer. It doesn't always mean it is nice and easy or comfortable, but His way will always leave us with a story to share that grows our confidence of how good He is.
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