Sunday, June 15, 2014
Monday, June 9, 2014
Hiding Place
I just finished reading The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom once again, and it never ceases to jar me from whatever downcast state I found myself in circumstantially to thankfulness. I especially admire Betsi. She is so faithfully constant in persevering through the direst of situations in prayer and joy throughout their journey. In the end of her life on earth, God crowns her with a beautiful mask of pleasantry on her face. If you haven't read it, I admonish you to do so, because it is so very inspiring. It is a story of divine intervention, survival, and eventual forgiveness towards her offenders on Corrie's behalf. It's amazing, gritty, soul-wrenching, and turns my eyes towards the intricate care God takes for us in our fallen world.
Maybe some people wouldn't see it that way.
I have been surrounded lately by people who are jaded and have lost their faith. Some days, it certainly wears on me and causes my mind to question and to doubt His goodness.
And then I remember: Things are not always as they seem. One day we will see clearly, but now we see as in a mirror, clouded perceptions of reality. My questions are then, in some way, thwarted by my faith. I choose to believe in God's ultimate goodness and I trust that He is going to transform every sorrow into beauty in His way, and I am looking forward to that, while being refined by my difficulties here, which are temporary, thankfully.
Faith is weird. It seems backwards to the scientific eye and the mind of "reason". Though I may be looked upon in my childlike faith as ridiculous or imaginative, I would not exchange this gift for anything. I know it in my core to be truth. And it gives me so much delight! I have seen a day filled with angst and swirling with trouble turn to absolute peace in the blink of an eye with prayer. I have seen and felt the atmosphere around me go from chaos to order after I have offered it all to God in surrender and petition. I have seen it and so I know it. I could not be convinced, no matter how tight the argument, to walk away from the faith I have found to be my foundation and hope.
"In this world you will have trouble, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world." John 16:33
Though we walk a darkened path, He is with us.
Though we lose a child and have no idea why this could have happened, He is with us.
Though we get cancer, or illnesses that keep us in the recesses of shadowy rooms, He is with us.
In our suffering, He is with us.
In our temptations and sins, and fallings away, and strayings, He is with us.
When we are lonely, He is with us.
When we feel abandoned by every earthly friend and family member, He is nearer than our own breath and simply a whispered prayer away from taking away all of the mourning if we will simply allow Him entrance.
I say this because I have experienced His touch in the midst of sorrow, His peace calming the storm raging inside of me. It is magic. It is a miracle. I believe because I see my life, my testimony of what was, to what is.
I was broken, I was dark, I was angry and hateful and selfish. I was all that mattered. Now, God willing, I place my needs last. This may be some strong power of the will, or, as I believe, it may be God's intervention in my life.
I was addicted, I was afraid to be alone with my thoughts, and empty.
Now I am free, I am confident in my God, and peaceful in my mind, and full of His vigor and joy for life. I have been given so many things I thought I'd never had, nor wanted (children, husband, quietude).
God is my hiding place. An ever-accessible refuge for body, mind, soul, heart.
And we know that, through testimony such as Corrie ten Boom's, He doesn't leave us no matter what.
He is not daunted by our doubts and questions. My children are full of curiosity and tough questions that I sometimes cannot answer. I don't shun them or shush them, but I try to wrestle out the answers with them, how much more does God long to answer our hard questions, and give us the faith to see past the things that seem impossible.
Maybe some people wouldn't see it that way.
I have been surrounded lately by people who are jaded and have lost their faith. Some days, it certainly wears on me and causes my mind to question and to doubt His goodness.
And then I remember: Things are not always as they seem. One day we will see clearly, but now we see as in a mirror, clouded perceptions of reality. My questions are then, in some way, thwarted by my faith. I choose to believe in God's ultimate goodness and I trust that He is going to transform every sorrow into beauty in His way, and I am looking forward to that, while being refined by my difficulties here, which are temporary, thankfully.
Faith is weird. It seems backwards to the scientific eye and the mind of "reason". Though I may be looked upon in my childlike faith as ridiculous or imaginative, I would not exchange this gift for anything. I know it in my core to be truth. And it gives me so much delight! I have seen a day filled with angst and swirling with trouble turn to absolute peace in the blink of an eye with prayer. I have seen and felt the atmosphere around me go from chaos to order after I have offered it all to God in surrender and petition. I have seen it and so I know it. I could not be convinced, no matter how tight the argument, to walk away from the faith I have found to be my foundation and hope.
"In this world you will have trouble, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world." John 16:33
Though we walk a darkened path, He is with us.
Though we lose a child and have no idea why this could have happened, He is with us.
Though we get cancer, or illnesses that keep us in the recesses of shadowy rooms, He is with us.
In our suffering, He is with us.
In our temptations and sins, and fallings away, and strayings, He is with us.
When we are lonely, He is with us.
When we feel abandoned by every earthly friend and family member, He is nearer than our own breath and simply a whispered prayer away from taking away all of the mourning if we will simply allow Him entrance.
I say this because I have experienced His touch in the midst of sorrow, His peace calming the storm raging inside of me. It is magic. It is a miracle. I believe because I see my life, my testimony of what was, to what is.
I was broken, I was dark, I was angry and hateful and selfish. I was all that mattered. Now, God willing, I place my needs last. This may be some strong power of the will, or, as I believe, it may be God's intervention in my life.
I was addicted, I was afraid to be alone with my thoughts, and empty.
Now I am free, I am confident in my God, and peaceful in my mind, and full of His vigor and joy for life. I have been given so many things I thought I'd never had, nor wanted (children, husband, quietude).
God is my hiding place. An ever-accessible refuge for body, mind, soul, heart.
And we know that, through testimony such as Corrie ten Boom's, He doesn't leave us no matter what.
He is not daunted by our doubts and questions. My children are full of curiosity and tough questions that I sometimes cannot answer. I don't shun them or shush them, but I try to wrestle out the answers with them, how much more does God long to answer our hard questions, and give us the faith to see past the things that seem impossible.
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