The Sweetness in Sorrows!

He turns rivers into a desert, springs of water into thirsty ground,

He turns a desert into pools of water, a parched land into springs of water. (Psalm 107:33, 35 ESV)

The Lord both gives and takes away.  He is God, He can and will do what He wants.  (Which is good news to us who believe and know Him). 

If you call that unjust, you could only ever believe that you, yourself are god.  I hope for your sake, that such a statement means you have an eternity ready for you as well.  

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This sweet time with God, the past 4 days, has really been just that...so sweet!

The Sweetness in Sorrows.

I know life will get hard again, things will happen, hormones might drop kick me, people might say hurtful things, money might be lost, my car might break down, a car might cut me off, someone might flip me the bird, a friend could tragically pass away, I could get diagnosed with an impairing ailment, a bird could poop on my face, my parents could reject me, my peers could abandon or discourage me, things could just get so out of control, ...

so many "justified" reasons for me to react in such a way that contradicts my view of the one absolutely only God.  The God who is God, regardless of what I think.  The God who sent His child to bleed and be killed for someone like me!  I think about this.  Then in moments when I am disappointed, ungrateful or angry at God, I recall that many sacrifices had to be made, including this bad situation, but more so including the death of Jesus, in order for me to have eternity with God.  Such sacrifices then become sweet sorrows.  I have what I want most, and that is all that matters, really.  Yes, I would like this or that situation to change in my current and temporary life on earth, but all that falls not only secondary to what I already have, but it is becoming astoundingly more vivid that grace and steadfast love wrap around everything in my life, whether I perceive them as "good" or "bad".  Before I only saw things the way I saw them, but now I see them differently. 

It's like  I see as one who puts on prescription lenses for the first time, the clarity and the precision!  

When I first got glasses as a kid in first grade, I still remember (and my mom loves to reenact it) the entire car ride home I kept exclaiming "The leaves!  The trees have leaves!"  At the time it was funny, because before having glasses I was walking around thinking everything was meant to be blurry.  But afterwards I saw the beautiful trees and the leaves that give them life and color.  And now, almost 20 something years later, I could easily take "the leaves" for granted, until I remember again that I once only saw blurs.  The leaves show themselves to me all over again.  It's not that they were no longer there, but it was that over time I had chosen not to remember them.  When I do remember I allow myself the joy of their beauty all over again.  

Having been through some really painful and confusing times in life, as I'm sure we can all attest to, The Lord first opened my eyes to His grace when He found me and revealed Himself to me.  It was in that moment, that I saw grace, as I had seen "the leaves!".  Now, as the days and months and years go by I can begin forgetting all that I once first saw as my saving grace and salvation, but I open the bible and there it is!  The entire book from Genesis to Revelations remind me that I have all that I want, and if I ever begin to forget I can only say that God, in His mercy, uses every "good" and "bad" situation in my life to bring me back.  Back to the sweetness.  

Faith is the Christian lens, the Bible is the prescription.  

What "good" or "bad" situation in your life is this sweet reminder, dear friend? 

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Sidenote:  

When it is particularly difficult for me to see "the leaves" of God's grace and mercy and love in a "bad" situation, I choose to run to Him in desperate prayer.  I choose, because He gives me a choice.  

In return for my love they accuse me, but I give myself to prayer. 

(Psalm 109:4 ESV)