God's goodness Archives – Facets of Faith

Expect the Unexpected

12.05.2019 by Tracy Stella //

Welcome to FACETS of Faith, friends! Snuggle up under a cozy blanket and see what God has for you in this season. We pray each week you visit these pages God meets you and speaks to your heart fresh, alive, with challenge and encouragement. We pray He gifts you with nuggets of His love and guidance regardless of which one of us He has given a message to. Check back next week to see what Jennifer writes and stay tuned for a special announcement from the team! (It feels appropriate considering our topic.)

Life isn’t always what we thought it would be. Sometimes that’s good. Sometimes it isn’t.

There have been moments in my own life where I wondered, “How did I get here?” The times when my life was in a ditch. The times when my life was exhilarating and full of hope and joy.

Both are curious. But if one thing is true, we can expect unexpected moments. None of us knows what lies ahead.

Granted, there are some truths we can cling to as believers. If we have accepted Christ, we know where we ultimately will abide for all eternity. There is absolutely comfort in that truth. Death was defeated thousands of years ago by the sacrifice Jesus paid on the cross.

He has saved us and called us to a holy life─not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time, but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.─1 Timothy 1:9-10 NIV (emphasis mine)

Some things we can bank on. God’s destruction of death is one of them.

It’s also a sad truth that if one doesn’t come to choose Christ, he or she will eternally reside in hell.

God’s grace and mercy will keep reaching for the children He so desperately loves. But He gives us free will to choose. We can choose life, or we can choose death. Ultimately, we decide our fate.

Beyond those two truths that feel extreme─I suppose because they are–one rich and full of experience with Christ, the other sad and full of despair. I can’t imagine hell for anyone, least of all for those I love.

I pray each one chooses to know Christ and can expect to live with Him for all eternity. I join you in praying that very thing for those you love and care for too. In Jesus’ name.

But what about when we are here on earth? There are a whole lot of unexpected moments while we are still here.

Would we really want it any other way? Do we want to know moment to moment what God is up to? Or do we want some anticipation, some excitement at the unknown He is bringing us to and through us? (Remind me to tell you how disappointed I was the year I secretly unwrapped all my Christmas gifts and then pretended to be surprised. Yeah, I was on Santa’s naughty list that year for sure! And my peeking took away from the wonder of Christmas.)

If we weren’t built for anticipation, why would we even bother wrapping gifts and setting them under the tree? We could just tell people, “Here’s what you’re getting.”

Where’s the wonder in that?

What would life be like if we looked at every unexpected moment as a present wrapped with Love in Love for the purpose of wonder?

Expect the Unexpected – A Present Wrapped with Love in Love for the Purpose of Wonder

What if unexpected moments were the very thing to bring us to our knees and come to know our God? That was the case for me and for many of you too, I’m sure. Had those moments not happened, I wouldn’t know the immeasurable love of a Father who loved me before I was even born.

He has plans for me and you that we can’t fathom. Part of His plan absolutely is to save us to Him, to His heart for us that exudes generosity. It’s the most beautiful, unexpected, and undeserved gift we could receive. But isn’t that the beauty of a gift when it is given generously? It’s an unexpected, sometimes overwhelming surprise at the goodness of it. We could never be good enough to earn it, but because God loves us THAT MUCH, He reaches for us in our most unexpected dark moments of despair.

For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.─Jeremiah 29:11 NKJV

We are called to be curious and adventurous to know what those thoughts and plans are! For someone like me, I love being granted permission to be curious and adventurous. Stepping into the unexpected, opens a great big adventurous world for us to experience.

As we grow to really know His love, He will leave us in wonder and give us courage to be bold. Those who question His love haven’t experienced it. While we might not understand it when we do, experience of His love changes us forever. We wonder how we ever did life without knowing this love. It’s there. Right there. For each of us.

If you hear His whisper, let Him in. That goes for all of us, whether we know Him or not. If we know Him, let Him into your heart further. If you don’t know Him, give Him a chance. I can promise you this: If you go to Him with a pure heart, He will meet you right where you are. It’s okay to be curious. It’s okay to have questions and doubts. God can handle those. He knows faith is hard, because it requires trust. And until we know Him and have experience of Him, that can be hard, especially if someone has violated our trust. God is not like us. We are made in His image, not the other way around. Borrow His courage. Borrow His strength. He’ll give them, and many other unexpected gifts that help us get through our darkest hour.

Expect the Unexpected – A Present No One Wants and Then What?

This morning I’d been reflecting on some tragic news I heard. The situation seems unimaginable. It was an unexpected event no one could have anticipated, even in their best efforts to do the right thing, to serve others in love, when up out of the abyss this terrible thing happened. I wept for them. It’s that horrible. My spirit grieved for them.

These are the moments when people who don’t walk with God question why He allows bad things if He is good.

Not every event is from God. We do have an enemy. The enemy is not good. He doesn’t have good intentions. He would love nothing more than to destroy every good intention, every beautiful mission from God. The enemy would love to silence us. However, God says, “Sing through a storm, lovely one.” Praise is one powerful weapon!

We need to remind satan he has been defeated. And as horrible as this tragedy is, any unimaginable tragedy, God has given us a very powerful gift. Several come to mind, actually.

We have the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:16). We can choose to believe what His word says to us. We have free will. We have the ability to make a conscious choice to know and believe and trust in God’s goodness.

For those of us who have been walking with God for awhile and these unexpected moments happen, the kind we’d like to run fast and far from, remember God’s faithfulness. Remember every good and perfect gift God has ever given you.

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change life shifting shadows.─James 1:17 NIV

God doesn’t change. He is unwavering and unshakable. He is good and He gives good gifts.

Those truths have helped me through hard, unexpected moments. I didn’t see “it” coming. I couldn’t have, really. My world was shaken, but I was able to stand because God is unshakable. I could stand in His shadow, His strength. I’d experienced Him enough to know He is faithful. So as tough as that season was, I knew God would help me through it. And He did.

He allowed me time to rest and grieve. He gave me the gift of processing all my thoughts and emotions with Him, safely, where I could be real and raw and completely vulnerable.

The ability to be ourselves, good, bad, sad, mad, joyful, silly, all of whomever He made us to be and allows us to experience, is a gift He gives us. Be you – beauty and blemishes. We don’t have to be what anyone else wants us to be. We don’t have to put on our poker face and pretend with God. He doesn’t want that. He wants the real you, the real me, surrendered to Him and ready to receive His love, comfort, leading, guiding, teaching, and healing.

God reassures me the dream He gave isn’t dead. It’s just dormant. Sometimes we need to wait. We need to expect the unexpected WILL HAPPEN when we least expect it. Like the first blossoms of spring that turn into a full-on explosion of life as the trees emerge from a long winter, dreams can (and do) jump to life in what can look to outsiders like an overnight “success”. Really, those dreams were cultivated in the deep soil of time spent alone with God preparing us for what’s next.

When we don’t like where things ended, turn the page. God’s not done yet.

I look at how God used that negative, unexpected experience and used it for my good. I don’t think God was the author of what happened to me, but I do think He is writing the last word on it.

I can share this much with you. He took that situation and He worked it for my good. I DO love Him and He was (and is) faithful to His promises.

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.─Romans 8:28 NIV

This promise isn’t only for some of us, the “holy ones”, the ones who seem to be so “spiritual”. Nope! The ticket to all things working for our good? All God asks in this promise? That we love Him. He can work with that!

I don’t get a lot of things right, but I do love God. And He worked my situation for the good.

I experienced a very unexpected shift. In this transition I have met people I wouldn’t have otherwise. Some of these people are important to the dream He still has planted in my heart. Others, I have been blessed by. Some, I’ve been able to bless as an Ambassador of Christ doing His work.

There is purpose in where He has placed us.

God is a good Harvester, and He won’t waste any of us or our efforts when we desire to be good soil for Him. He’ll still use us. Wherever we are. I think someone needs to hear that very thing today. God’s not done with you yet! Expect the unexpected sweet one. God has something special for you. The time is near.

Expect the Unexpected – A Present to Treasure

If you’ve lived life in this world for any length of time, it can be easy to become discouraged, and maybe even a little frightened at the state of things.

But God came to save the world. He hasn’t lifted His sovereign hand from this earth, from our lives, or the lives of those we love. We shouldn’t be surprised by the sin of the world and how it’s manifesting. Read the books of prophecy. He told us what to expect. Sin and its consequences aren’t unexpected at all.

Because of sin, He came to save.

When Mary was pregnant with baby Jesus, she treasured up God’s goodness. You can be certain she was not expecting to encounter God the way she did. Who would have thought the most precious gift the world was ever given, would come at the cost she paid? She gave her reputation. She gave her body. She risked her relationship with Joseph to follow the Lord.

And through it all she treasured up the moments she was given with Christ that no one else got to experience. I love that verse so much because it reminds me to treasure Him up too. There are things He’s given me, that He didn’t give to anyone else. Some of these things are hard things, but in them I can see His beauty. I encounter Him. We can each treasure those moments with Him too (even if we don’t love the difficulty).

So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.─Luke 2:16-19 NIV (emphasis mine)

Mary had just given birth. Not easy. Painful, in fact. Yet, she treasured up these things and pondered them in her heart. We can learn from Mary.

There are moments God has given me that are sweet, special, sacred, and undeniable. Granted, I never gave birth to Christ, but He has helped me experience His goodness in difficult times. If I hover over the memories too long, tears will spill over, overwhelmed by His goodness in the midst of mess─mine and the world’s.

Remember to share these moments with others. They are for God’s glory. Don’t withhold what He has done.

I pray you encounter these unexpected experiences of God’s goodness in your own life, when you are left with your jaw dropping to the floor in disbelief and overwhelm that God sees you and knows you, that He knows exactly what you need to be encouraged and to feel loved.

Deeply loved.

I think if we peered into the well of God’s love for us, we couldn’t see the depth of it. We’d expect there was a limit, because we have limits and they can be pushed. But God’s love for us is never ending.

The faithful love of the LORD never ends!

His mercies never cease.

Great is his faithfulness;

his mercies begin afresh each morning.

I say to myself, “The LORD is my inheritance;

therefore, I will hope in him!” ─Lamentations 3:22-24 NLT

Treasure it up in your heart, sweet one, much like Mary did when she was expecting baby Jesus. Expect Him to show up in your life too. He is birthing something beautiful.

I pray Jesus celebrates so many mountaintop moments with you that your faith runs deep, so deep that people see Christ’s reflection in you.

That seems kind of crazy to expect God trusts us enough to be His ambassadors of love. But He does! His trust in us might feel foreign and unexpected. Embrace it and let His grace guide you. Don’t put pressure on yourself to perform. Let Him show you who He’s assigned to you. Let Him show you how. Follow His lead.

Love is an unexpected lesson we can all learn. We are to give it, and we get to receive it. What if the person who needed it most didn’t get it, because we didn’t do our part? What if that person is US in this season? That’s okay too. Give. Receive. There’s a season for everything, even as there’s nothing new under the sun (Ecclesiastes 3).

Know this. A situation may feel unexpected to us, but God is never surprised by our circumstances. Celebrate with Him in moments of joy. Run to Him in moments of trial. He is faithful to be with us in tragedy and triumph. We can expect His presence to carry us through every season.

Be blessed this Christmas season, sweet one. Let the wonder of the season instill wonder in your heart for Christ.

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What Helps you Sing in April’s Showers?

04.04.2019 by Tracy Stella //

Welcome to Facets of Faith! We invite you to linger and let God’s love and leading speak to your heart. This month we talk about, What Helps you Sing in April’s Showers? What would God have us do in the midst of a storm? Stay awhile and read what He put on my (Tracy’s) heart and check back over the coming weeks to see what Jennifer & Kim have to say on this topic.

Let’s be singers in the rain as we explore God’s heart for us.

I’m sitting in a coffee shop on a rainy day listening to a conversation I’m trying not to hear. Damp. Grey. Language as angry as the clouds outside threatening storms.

Have you ever been there?

You intend to do your thing, but as you sit, minding your own business, the words, vocabulary, circumstances connect to your story. No longer just white noise to create atmosphere, you can’t help but tune in. The words too close to your story. Maybe one you wouldn’t write, but we don’t always get to choose the words written and the way our life will go.

Some things we have control of. Others we do not. Mostly we do not.

The conversation consists of things you are curious to learn more about. You silently listen, absorb, and process from a safe distance. They are not close to you, even as you are connected as human beings. But they are not your people, so you can listen from life’s sidelines. Listen and learn. (And weep a little inside.)

Your heart breaks for them and their struggle even as it breaks for yourself and those you love, who are in the midst of a similar storm of struggle and emotion.

This person’s story connects to mine. Indirectly. But still. I hear when I want to write. I guess that’s God’s plan. To write about this. I’ve never visited this coffee shop. Felt led to come this way, rather than that, so I know God’s intention was for me to hear it. Even when sometimes I just want to stop up my ears, to not hear.

When it hurts, and we know it, don’t we all want to turn the channel and listen to something else? A little more up tempo please. Change the channel from the angry metal or the melancholy blues. Something more like, Don’t Worry Be Happy. (Sorry if you whistle the tune for the rest of the day.)

I can’t unhear. I can’t disconnect. I can process my emotions. I can seek to understand. I can always love. Always. Because that’s what Jesus would do, and I want to be like Him, to love as He does.

The hardest times for me to love others well is when loving them seats itself right next to my own woundedness. A nerve touched, still at the surface. Maybe it should be gone. But it’s not. Some things take time. In my opinion too much, but God says, “Take the time you need.” Because He is good like that. So good to give us the time we need.

Some things fade but may never disappear. Fully.

Do you have those things too? Those subterranean wounds you’d rather leave well enough alone. You’ve dealt with them, mostly.

Honestly, I’m not sure my inner struggle will ever disappear. It’s there. Like Paul’s thorn that wounds, but also serves as a reminder he needs God’s grace and strength to see him through. I need those too. Strength and grace. Because sometimes when you bump into the thorn it penetrates. It reminds you the wound is still there, in need of God’s strength and grace. His mercy. His love. Desperate for it. We all are, whether we know it or not.

Avoiding pain is something we all do at times. Me? Sometimes, it’s my defense. I am not deaf to pain or fear or the noise our broken nature makes inside each of us. It makes a ruckus sometimes, reminding us we are alive, reminding us we need Jesus. Every day.

I just don’t always want to stare it down. I can’t even always bring myself to pray about and through it. Sometimes, I grow weary in the rainy season. It can get muddy and messy (and ruin all my favorite shoes)! I need to remember to grab my galoshes and splash through life’s seasons.

What helps me sing in April’s showers?

What, indeed?

What helps me sing in April’s showers?

Sometimes, I need to remind myself. Life can be hard sometimes. There can be seasons that feel harsh and dry, like a desert. Parched. Cracked. Almost dead. I’ve experienced those where it felt like I was on the brink and God brought me back. To Him. To Life. To the possibility of love and hope and joy.

Jubilant! The stuff that cause you to sing in the rain. Splash in the puddles. Have joy in spite of circumstances.

Christ’s death on the cross helps us to do just that.

I really think we have a choice. We get to make a conscious choice to sing even during April’s showers.

One effective strategy to help us sing in April’s showers is to choose joy.

When thunderous clouds threaten to overtake our world, we can let them. Or we can choose otherwise. We can choose to lament, or we can choose joy. We can break open fresh gifts of grace that give us access to God’s joy.

Joy is a weapon that helps me sing.

La, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la….

Joy sitting in the midst of a storm? We all can do it, in Christ’s power. In our own strength joy is sometimes downright impossible. Let’s face it. Life can be overwhelming.

We can choose to sit in the overwhelm or we can choose joy.

Joy is the best choice. It’s the choice that lets us live life instead of succumbing to what the enemy would want for us─languishing. The enemy would rather we lay like the person in need of healing for 38 years, when all we need to do is crawl to the healing pond of Christ’s love and joy.

Choosing joy takes energy. We have to move toward it.

You want to know what’s pretty amazing?

Even if we only have enough energy to lean a little toward it, God’s grace pulls us closer into His joy. Just lean, sweet ones. Lean in.

Another effective strategy to help us sing in April’s showers is to choose prayer in the middle of an anxious, angry storm.

It’s not about Don’t Worry Be Happy, it’s about be anxious about nothing and through prayer and petition let God’s peace consume us. God’s peace as a guard for our hearts and minds.

Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.─Philippians 4:6-7 NKJV

Let your requests be made known to God.

Even as I sit here (still listening) I seek God. I could let the circumstances of this scene overwhelm me with anxiety or I can pray. I can pray some more. And pray some more.

Any “normal” person would feel anxiety at an overwhelming circumstance that hits a little too close to home. I wonder, “Why am I here? What does God have for me in this? What does God have for the ones He has me in the midst of hearing right now?”

This isn’t just about me. It never is just about us. We’re included, for sure. But especially if we are His children, this is always about others as well. The light within us He wants to reach out to others, even if it makes us a little anxious.

I felt the anxiety as I got up to go to the bathroom. Quietly, in my head, “God, how do You want me to respond in this?”

In effect, what do you want me to do with this? There IS a reason I am here. Right now. Listening. Lamenting. Choosing joy. Trying to focus on the written word as I hash this out.

I can feel my adrenaline kick in. What to do? What to do?

Choosing love. But what does that look like in this situation?

I have NO IDEA!

Guess what? I pray some more to let my adrenaline slow so I can hear God. Anxiety clouds our thinking more than just about anything else. And we definitely need clear heads to make wise decisions, especially in an emotional storm.

Another effective strategy to help us sing in April’s showers is to choose courage in the middle of a tsunami.

I reflect on Pastor Scott’s sermon about adventure as a believer and whom Jesus dined with. He didn’t sit with all the prim and proper. He sat with those who needed Him most and were most receptive to Him and His love, because the depths of their need for Him was great.

Let’s face it. None of us is really all that prim and proper. We are works in progress each and every one of us. We all need His love. None of us has it fully together. Aren’t we all just figuring it out as we go?

I know I am!

So I mustered up the courage to approach their table, the wounded broken ones who were courageous enough to speak of these things aloud. (Tears now, because once you push through the anxiety and pray, relief floods.)

I walked up to these two who need Jesus’ love just like I do. I briefly shared how I connect with their story, handed my business card (the only thing I had handy), with handwritten scribbles “The Chapel, Grayslake”. An invitation to come and see.

Someone gave me that once, an invitation. And look at how my life has changed for the good. So grateful! So blessed! Even as my life isn’t perfect, I recognize it as good.

Sometimes we have to face down our own personal fear and anxiety so someone else can know God’s goodness. Today, I’m feeling brave. And my prayer is that someone else will grow to know God’s goodness because God drew me here.

As Pastor Scott reminded us in his sermon, we ARE God’s plan. I’m grateful for his reminder. It gave me the gumption to step into my own personal scary place, to push past my personal fear, and to invite them into God’s peace and love.

And now I can exhale.

THEY are why I came here. He sent me. He had me search my reservoir of emotions. He knew I would be sensitive to their story because it bumped up against mine. It was hard, a spiritual hurdle, because their brokenness brushes up against mine.

The enemy would want shame and fear, but Christ’s plan for us is courage and life. Every ounce of good we give to the world helps evil shrink. Darkness recedes because it cannot coexist with light and love.

I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.─Philippians 1:20-21 NIV

I eagerly expect. Isn’t that great?

We can eagerly expect Christ to show up with courage and bring life to us and others. I was dying a bit inside with the angst of this situation, of what I was hearing. Of what their story was stirring up in mine. But God. But God gave me an eager expectation and hope that He has a plan. For me. For those precious two He sent me to hear, for them to feel seen and heard (literally), and receive an invitation and hug from God through my arms.

This was for me too. I know that full well. Another level of freedom. No shame. Only love. And waves of grace.

Maybe not fully free, but a little freer today for having faced down fear. Courage sufficient for this day to help me sing in the rain.

Another effective strategy to help us sing in April’s showers is to remember facing our storms with strength and joy reveal God’s glory.

This life is not our own. We are God’s children left here for a reason. People see and know God, in part, when they see and know God through us, through our story, through the way we receive them, through the way we love. We are so flawed and imperfect, yet God dwells within us as believers. He guides our steps. He uses us to impact others.

He shows Himself real, manifesting ever-so-powerfully when we walk through a storm well. Never alone. Like Peter when He calls us out of the boat, God helps us walk on water. We may freak out and start to sink, but all we need to do is look up and let Him lift us as He speaks to the storm and calms it.

When you find yourself holding your breath, as I often do when I feel stressed, breathe Christ in. Breathe deeply. Slowly. Let Him calm your nerves and guide your steps.

He tells us the way to go. And we are never alone in the going.

For all the gods of the nations are idols,

but the LORD made the heavens.

Splendor and majesty are before him;

strength and joy are in his dwelling place.

Ascribe to the LORD, all you families of nations,

ascribe to the LORD glory and strength.

─1 Chronicles 16:26-28 NIV

When we do the brave thing and take courage? God’s glory is revealed.

And in that a rainbow of promise, because color emerges bright and vibrant after a grey storm recedes.

How is God speaking to you in this? What song does He wish for you to sing?

Sing to the LORD a new song;

sing to the LORD, all the earth.

Sing to the LORD, praise his name;

proclaim his salvation day after day.

Declare his glory among the nations,

his marvelous deeds among the peoples.

─Psalm 96:1-3 NIV

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A Purifying Perspective on Fire, God, and Life

11.30.2018 by Kim Findlay //

This month at Facets of Faith we’ve been taking a look at what we believe to be God’s most precious attribute. You will want to check out Tracy and Jen’s posts as well as our guest this month, Erin.

I have to be honest, this topic gave me a run for my money. I’m a week late and wrestling with each word I’m about to share. Not just because I struggle to narrow it down to one aspect of his vast character, but because of this season of life I find myself in right now.

Hard. Lonely. Intense.

It ranks up there with the death of my daughter and the slow decay of my first marriage. I feel like I’m in the furnace of struggle and God is burning off the excess, separating the impurities of my life with what is precious and most valuable.

Perspective

As I sat with the idea of identifying His most precious attribute, I was surprised when the words refiner’s fire came to mind.

I don’t like fire. I’ve seen its destructive power firsthand when fire destroyed my home in 2005. I know the suffocating effects it leaves in its path as my daughter, Emma, died in its wake.

But you don’t have to have firsthand experience with your own fire these days to glimpse fire’s power. Just turn on the news and you’ll see the destruction in places like Paradise, California and through the path of the Camp fire.

So it’s curious to me that as I pondered this month’s question that I didn’t choose his peace, his hope, or his faithfulness —all of which are true. I circled this other answer, words I’m almost fearful to whisper but have been buried in my soul for years.

Refiner’s fire

My heart’s one desire

is to be holy

Set apart for you, Lord

I choose to be holy

Set apart for your my Master

Ready to do your will

I first heard this song by Brian Doerkson back in the early 2000s. Before fire destroyed our home. Before my daughter took her final breath. Before life as I knew it smoldered with suffering. I remember singing the words and longing for them to be true in my life, I just didn’t realize the cost.

Remembering

I remember the moment my heart, my soul, and my mind converged in longing to see God move in a mighty way through my life. I witnessed the devastation of a former co-worker’s life. His story impacted me greatly as he stood before our staff and shared not only the destruction, but the hope and the intimacy he experienced as God restored his life.

I want that. I remember thinking. I want to know Jesus the way I see he knows Jesus now. Then I prayed, Lord, do whatever it takes so I might know you better, so I might live and long for you as my one desire.

to him who led his people through the wilderness; His love endures forever.” Psalm 136:16

The Furnace

The very next day, fire broke out in my home and everything changed as I plunged into the furnace of suffering. I had no idea what I was supposed to do or how I would survive. My worst nightmare had become my reality as the heat of sorrow and grief suffocated me. I felt alone and afraid and so very lost.

I see now that I wasn’t lost. Not really. Nor was I alone. God sent reinforcements from the moment smoke began to billow in the sky through the gift of a neighbor. He reminded me through my daughter’s funeral director of a very different yet slightly similar story I’ve know since I was a child.

There were these three guys, maybe you’ve heard of them? Shadrach, Meschach, and Abednego, three guys who made a decision to not worship King Nebuchadnezzar despite his declaration that all must bow down before the image of gold he had set up. You can read more of their story here (Daniel 3:1-30). But their decision to stand firm and worship the one true God had dire consequences: “Whoever does not fall down and worship will immediately be thrown into a blazing furnace.” Daniel 3:6

Into the furnace they went, bound and tied.

This kind funeral director didn’t leave me standing in the flames alone, he led me straight to the truth. “Didn’t we tie up three men and throw them into the furnace?’ ‘Yes, your Majesty, we certainly did,’ they replied. ‘Look!’ Nebuchadnezzar shouted. ‘I see four men, unbound, walking around in the fire unharmed! And the fourth looks like a god!’” Daniel 3:24-25

Jesus was with these three men, and this gentle man reminded me that Jesus was with me as well.

So Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego stepped out of the fire. Then the high officers, officials, governors, and advisors crowded around them ands that the fire had not touched them. Not a hair on their head was singed, and their clothing was not scorched. They didn’t even smell of smoke!” Daniel 3:26b-27

The Ashes

I wish I didn’t carry the scars of the fire, but I do. Deep scars of loss and grief and suffering beyond what I ever imagined possible. But just like these three men, I’ve stepped out of the fire and survived. But I’ve not only survived, I’m being refined to resemble Jesus. I still have a ways to go, but it’s happening. And others see it, too, as I shared thoughts and experiences that could only be offered through the gift of Jesus’ presence.

I’m learning to be grateful for all of the hardship that’s happened. I’m not a fan of it, let’s just set that record straight. But I see what He’s doing in me, and through me. I see how He’s been transforming me and how I’ve learned more about Him over the past 13 years than I ever thought possible.

He remembered us in our low estate His love endures forever.” Psalm 136:23

Purifying Perspective

A refiner’s fire purifies. It separates the precious from the impure. Because of the fire, I’ve learned that God’s mercy has no limits and His grace never runs out. Because of the fire I’ve experienced the depth of His love, true and everlasting love from which I can never be separated no matter what happens or what I do.

Because of the fire I faced my biggest fears and, by His strength, I survived. And I’ve not only survived, I’m living and breathing and enjoying this life He’s entrusted to me.

Because of the fire I can say with certainty that God is good no matter what. His goodness has absolutely nothing to do with me or the circumstances that happen to me. They have everything to do with Him —His character, His essence, simply put —His is good.

Because of the fire my desire for God’s kingdom to come has grown exponentially. I long to see Him now, not just the hope or wish of heaven in the future. I experience the gift of His Spirit now. But I also have the promise of heaven, knowing that all of this pain and suffering and sorrow and tears will end. I will see my sweet girl and I will see Jesus!

Because of the fire I learned to see the battle —the very real battle that is happening between the kingdom of heaven and kingdom of darkness and I know, without a doubt, that Jesus is victorious. I tasted that victory in the darkness of grief. I tasted hope that defies my circumstances.

Because of the fire I learned to see beyond myself, my selfish desires, and my eyes have grown accustomed to see God throughout my every day. I learned to recognize His voice, His promptings, His gifts —so much of what I could not see before.

No, while fire is certainly not the most precious thing, it has led me to all that is precious. It led me to Him. And while I still long to see my girls grow up together, to celebrate the 13 birthdays I’ve missed, to not feel the stabbing pain as my precious girl danced into heaven, I can’t help but see the tenderness as God heal my heart and restores my soul.

And just like Shadrach, Mischeck, and Abednigo, I walked with Jesus through the fire and there is nothing more precious than that.

Give thanks to the God of heaven. His love endures forever.” Psalm 136:26

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