Hoartio Spafford has me thinking (well, he and Ann V ... who, once again, wrote one thousand gifts, that if you still haven't bought, you should!!) about the kind of life that in the face of tragedy (not years down the road where time has brought healing, but in its very rawest point) can say, it is well with my soul ... that is a heart that knows gratude. it is a life that practices eucharisteo. it is someone who believes, not just with their head, that GOD IS GOOD. all. the. time.
Cause let's be honest here, all is life is not easy. All of life is not pretty. Some of life is just hard and so painful we don't really know where God can possibly be in the midst of it. The grief. The pain. The uncertainty and disappointment. We look for answers that just don't come. We pray and find seeming silence. I can run through the prayer list in the back of my journal ... friends waiting for a marriage to be restored, waiting on dreams to be fulfilled, waiting on healing to come to loved ones, waiting through some pretty tough stuff.
How do we count the blessings, the gifts in those times? How do we find the grace to say in the MIDST of all of those times, it is well with my soul?
Cause let's be honest here, all is life is not easy. All of life is not pretty. Some of life is just hard and so painful we don't really know where God can possibly be in the midst of it. The grief. The pain. The uncertainty and disappointment. We look for answers that just don't come. We pray and find seeming silence. I can run through the prayer list in the back of my journal ... friends waiting for a marriage to be restored, waiting on dreams to be fulfilled, waiting on healing to come to loved ones, waiting through some pretty tough stuff.
How do we count the blessings, the gifts in those times? How do we find the grace to say in the MIDST of all of those times, it is well with my soul?
See now that I, I am He,
And there is no god besides Me;
It is I who put to death and give life
I have wounded and it is I who heal,
And there is no one who can deliver from My hand.
Dt. 32:39
"See that I am God. See that I am in everything. See that I do everything. See that I have never stopped ordering my works, nor ever shall, eternally. See that I lead everything on to the conclusion I ordained for it before time began, by the same power, wisdom, and love with which I made it. How can anything be amiss." - Julian of Norwich
God is always good and I am always loved. In that is grace.
There is a gift in EVERYTHING. We may have to change our perspective to see it. But it's there.
76. needing God
77. the feeling of release after a good cry
78. hugs that let you know you are truly loved
79. the kind of look that sees into your soul
80. being heard
81. peace that passes understanding
82. sunrises
83. fat, fluffy clouds
84. pictures that evoke sweet memories
85. grandmothers and grandfathers
86. the hope that we hold at funerals that this is not the end
87. healing
88. each new day we are given
89. sunsets and the pinks and oranges they brush across the sky
90. going barefoot
86. the hope that we hold at funerals that this is not the end
87. healing
88. each new day we are given
89. sunsets and the pinks and oranges they brush across the sky
90. going barefoot
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