The Gift of Sorrow

A note before reading today's post....I'm finding that instead of posting each day, I'm doing about one a week in this new year. I only write as God flows through me and this seems to be the new pace. So, I would like to suggest signing up to have posts go straight to your email inbox. It's convenient and automatic. Simply look for the option in the right side bar and sign-up. Thank you for your support and faithfulness for hearing God speak through His servant.

Joy and Sorrow

Sorrow is better than laughter, because a sad face is good for the heart. Ecclesiastes 7:3 I never understood or liked this scripture until now. Sorrow is better than laughter? That sounds terrible and depressing and I was afraid of a God that would even say that! Until now......

This is an excerpt from my devotional that tells the lesson of sorrow:

Sorrow, under the power of divine grace, performs various ministries in our lives. Sorrow reveals unknown depths of the soul, and unknown capacities for suffering and service. Lighthearted and frivolous people are always shallow and are never aware of their own meagerness or lack of depth. Sorrow is God's tool to plow the depths of the soul, that it may yield richer harvests. If humankind were still in a glorified state, having never fallen, then the strong floods of divine joy would be the force God would use to reveal our soul's capacities. But in a fallen world, sorrow, yet with despair removed, is the power chosen to reveal us to ourselves. Accordingly, it is sorrow that causes us to take the time to think deeply and seriously.


Sorrow makes us move more slowly and considerately and examine our motives and attitudes. It opens within us the capacities of the heavenly life, and it makes us willing to set our capacities afloat on a limitless sea of service for God and for others. Imagine a village of lazy people living at the foot of a great mountain range, yet who have never ventured out to explore the valleys and canyons back in the mountains. One day a great thunderstorm goes careening through the mountains, turning the valleys into echoing trumpets and revealing their inner recesses, like the twisted shapes of a giant seashell. The villagers at the foot of the hills are astonished at the labyrinths and the unexplored recesses of a region so nearby and yet so unknown. And so it is with many people who casually live on the outer edge of their own souls, until great thunderstorms of sorrow reveal hidden depths within, which were never before known or suspected.

God never uses anyone to a great degree until He uses their trial to break them completely. Joseph experienced more sorrow than the other sons of Jacob, and it led him into a ministry of food for all nations! For this reason, the Holy Spirit said of him, "Joseph is a fruitful vine....near a spring, whose branches climb over a wall" (Genesis 49:22). It takes sorrow to expand and deepen the soul. (from the Heavenly Life)

Every person and every nation must endure lesson's in Gods school of adversity. In the same way we say, "Blessed is the night, for it reveals the stars to us," we can say, "Blessed is sorrow, for it reveals God's comfort." A flood once washed away a poor man's home and mill, taking with it everything he owned in the world. He stood at the scene of his great loss, brokenhearted and discouraged. Yet after the waters had subsided, he saw something shining in the riverbanks that the flood had washed bare. "It looks like gold," he said. And it was gold. The storm that had impoverished him made him rich. So it is oftentimes in life. Henry Clay Trumbull

Joy and Sorrow are companions.....
Joy needs Sorrow to feel deep, and Sorrow
needs joy to feel hope.

Dear readers.....Sorrow is something beautiful and intimate, it is a place and time that is inevitable but it can be a meeting place for us to be comforted, taught and loved by our Savior on how to comfort and love others. Sorrow actually opens a precious and rare door to the supernatural world of God's immutable tenderness. We so often are too busy blaming Him for everything that makes us uncomfortable that we miss completely, the tender moments with God that sorrow enables. God does not cause tragedy..... He uses it. 

The dark brown soil is turned by the sharp-pointed plow; and I've a lesson learned.
My life is but a field, stretched out beneath God's sky, some harvest rich to yield.
Where grows the golden grain? Where faith? Where sympathy? In a furrow cut by pain.
*Maltbie D. Babcock


STEPPINGSTONES by Helen Steiner-Rice

Think not that life has been unfair,
and given you too much to bear;
For God has chosen you because,
with all your weaknesses and flaws,
He feels that you are worthy of,
the greatness of His wondrous love.

Welcome every stumbling block,
and every thorn and jagged rock;
for each one is a stepping stone,
to a fuller life than we've ever known.
And in the radiance of God's smiles,
we learn to soar above life's trials.
And as we grow in strength and grace,
the clearer we can see God's face.
       Helen Steiner-Rice

Just as a song needs slow, deep tones and crescendos and paintings need tonal values of dark and light, so does life........ joy and sorrow are companions and they are both part of the journey.

"Dear friends," (says the Apostle Peter), "do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when His glory is revealed." 1 Peter 4:12,13

Four Seasons of a Soul's Day

The best way to know life is to love many things.
Vincent Van Gogh

Picture your soul looking like this!
Four different areas but all beautiful together!
Unlike the seasons....our soul lives all four at the same time.
Isn't God amazing!

THE FOUR SEASONS OF A SOULS DAY......

MENTALLY

The last two days I've had enough relief from my pain to do a few things around the house and it felt wonderful! The diminished pain allowed joy to be all around me and I felt creative for the fist time in a long time! I worked on some design projects, did some little spa treatments on myself, cleaned, decorated, wrote and rested. My mind felt free and clear to explore and to create! I saw "in color" for the first time in a long time and it was phenomenal as my thoughts felt so alive!

EMOTIONALLY

I've had an opportunity to start a study with my husband and its steps are allowing us to discuss and share different viewpoints of areas of our relationship. It's funny how we think we know what another person is thinking or why they do or react the way they do. I'm finding that my husbands reactions are not aloof or uncaring but just the opposite, his quietness and calmness is many times just thoughtfulness or helplessness. He feels intimidated by the depths of my physical pain and emotional feelings so his response is to do acts of service by keeping everything together. We are seeing how gracious God is to bless one with the other! We are each others, other half! Can you imagine two of the same kind of people trying to co-habitate! We're learning to appreciate the differences and to listen to what the other person needs to say. It's a good thing :)

PHYSICALLY

A wonderful blessing happened this past week when I finally found a Holistic doctor that is helping me to recover health in my body again! Last year was miserable but I can look back and see the deep healing that God brought to my mind and soul through that down time. This year though, is a time for me to get my body healed and working again at a higher level! I'm excited about the new changes and I'm looking forward to a new facet of my life being revealed. I know that as my spirit heals so my body will follow, Proverbs 17:22 states, "A cheerful heart is good medicine but a crushed spirit dries up the bones." I carried a crushed spirit for a long time but now it's time for a cheerful heart! We are praying that my symptoms will begin to heal and stop progressing. By changing my attitudes, my diet, my reactions.........we're hoping that a healing process begins to afford me a more full and joyful life.

SPIRITUALLY

God wants your soul clean and healthy but so many people are not willing to clean that closet. Trust me, it is much more harmful to you and those around you to keep those coals burning in your soul than it is to ask God to reveal and heal them. The hard part is all the tremendous anxiety that we put ourselves through because of the fear we have regarding having to deal with it. The easiest part is opening that dark closet, turning on the light and seeing, that that step was actually the hardest part! The rest is just small steps in grace, as we get rid of the junk and only put back the good and healthy things.

Has someone crushed your spirit? Is there a dark closet in your soul? Do you have an issue or issues that you've just brushed aside but they are truly not resolved or at peace? Do you just bury your sorrows thinking that they can't hurt you now? They can and they will rot a hole in you! They will be at the root of who you are and how you act! Ask God to begin to help you deal with those issues and you will rise out of the dark and into a life in the light!

This year try to see yourself as four parts that make up a whole being with a soul. My dad used to say that if you would just keep those four things (mental, emotional, spiritual and physical) healthy and in balance then you would be a content and healthy person. He also told me that if we disrespect one of those areas then the other's would suffer and be weak. My dad was wise that way and it would be smart of us to heed his wisdom as we enter a new year. Take a look at each area and find what is good and what is not, then, smile at the good choices that you've made and begin to change (with God's help) the things that have been ignored. Make this a year of healing, smiling, joy, understanding and peace, not just for yourself but for those in your life too! GO, AND LOVE MANY THINGS, FOR JOY GROWS FROM LOVE!

Check each area of your life and soul against these fruits......

.....the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control. Galatians 5:22,23

Soul Survivor

Soul: The spiritual home created by God, to house our unique talents, gifts, personality, emotions and convictions. The  place from where, who we are, flows out into the world. It can be inhabited by good if we invite Christ to reside there or if left unsealed by the Holy Spirit it can house any spirit or spirits. It is an eternal entity so it will live on forever somewhere and God hopes and desires that each soul will choose to be with Him. The soul will be a blessing or a curse while living on this earth and it will also be blessed or cursed in eternity depending on who it trusted and believed. The soul can be a place of beauty where God's love passes through to other lives, or, for those that reject God it will be a place of pride, fear and self ...... a lonely place. There is a war for each soul and the first battle begins in the mind ........ so that is the first place that a stand must be taken. Each person must ask themselves, "Who will I serve this day?" Then, you will know the purpose and destiny of your soul.



Why do we treat our souls as if they mean nothing or that caring for them is an option? We maintain so many parts of our lives......we brush our teeth, bath our bodies, clean our valuables, wash our car, feed our body, feed our pets, clean our windows and mirrors, balance our check book, check our statements and financial records, service our cars engine, refill our wiper fluid, put more staples in the stapler, change the ink cartridges in our printer, defrag our computer and run updates, put fuel and oil in our car, fix and maintain household items, we go to the doctor, hydrate our body, check for lumps or marks, we even add vitamins, supplements and exercise........How very careful we are to maintain our bodies and belongings, but to feed, hydrate and give rest and care to ones own soul, seems to be something that is optional and not a necessity. Our spirit and soul will live forever unlike our body or things, so doesn't it make even more sense to treat it with value and care? We are the only ones that can hear the weakened cries of our soul for spiritual food, water, light and love. Only we can set the priority or make the time for our soul to be cared for.

Are you maintaining and feeding it with the Word of God (reading your bible), fellowship (going to church or a small group), prayer (precious and needed time alone with God), rest (quiet time in His presence so you can be renewed)? Maybe your soul is like an old toy that has gotten buried in the back of the closet (neglected)? Or, it's a plant that you keep on your counter but only water it after you notice it is hanging over the edge from neglect (starved)? Is your soul something you have handed the rights to it over to someone else because you have determined that they are of more value than you (discounted)? Your soul can be full of God's light and love, it can be filled with temporary darkness and hopelessness or it can be a permanent residence for evil. God's desire for your soul is that it will be the special and sacred meeting place for just Him and you and that your invitation requesting His presence will make it a holy place. A place where we are known and loved in a way that we could not experience anywhere else! He wants it to be a special, priceless, colorful, beautiful, empathetic, sympathetic, giving place within us, that is capable of weeping with those who weep and rejoicing with those who rejoice! A place filled with God's light and love, where we talk to Him, listen to Him, rest with Him, and are inspired by Him! Your soul is a spiritual entity that is capable of giving love only because God has given love to it! Your soul should be cared for so that it is robust, healthy and vibrant, allowing everything special about it to shine and reflect with God's goodness!

Can a lamp shine without being plugged in? Can a motor run without fuel? Can a person live without food? Why then do you think that you can be a force for God if you don't connect to Him? Your soul is the main -line to your relationship with Him, it is the eternal blessing planted in your life that connects you with your Creator for eternity! Your soul, is the place from where all goodness or evil will flow depending on your choices. This life is not about how much we can acquire materialistically but about how much we can give of ourselves and of the riches God has given to us. Your soul is a storehouse for the unique gifts that only you have been given and a place from where you will share them! Acquiring is temporal but giving is eternal, and that is what God will be looking for when we stand before Him one day and He asks, "What did you do with the life I gave you?" Your soul is the integral channel for doing everlasting things, it has two doors, one for gifts to enter and one for gifts to flow out. Caring for your soul means you understand how precious you are in God's sight and that He created you with purpose. How fearfully and wonderfully made you are (Psalm 139:14)! No matter what you have done to your soul, even if you or someone else has buried it alive, it can always be revived because it is eternal! Your soul cannot be killed only weakened, therefore, God will restore it upon your request. It is never to late for it to be taken up into loving arms and cared for until it can be strong and wonderful again! But, it is only the souls owner who can present it each day before the source of all healing and restoration!

If your soul is overgrown with weeds and has been unattended for a while or maybe never tended to, then, invite the Master Gardener in and His love will be the rich soil from which your talents and thoughts will sprout! Let all the fruits of the Spirit grow in you and flow through you into the lives of others, for it is only a full and healthy soul that feels peace and one that spills over from abundance that blesses others! Be blessed, then be a blessing!

An Epic Tale

Every story has an end and God says that, "ALL things work together for good for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose." It is so easy to loose ourselves in the beginning or in the middle of our story and not exercise the faith that we have developed so as to feel peace DURING our trial. All the confusion and anxiety mounts when we are in a time of trouble but we must remember God's promises! Your sorrow will end and with that closure will come God's divine insight of His hand at work in it. John 8:12 says, "He that follows Me (Jesus) will not walk in darkness." Does that mean we will have full heavenly disclosure of all the reasons why things happened or are happening? No, it means that God's Word and His Spirit will be our light of hope through all our dark moments. Life may puzzle our reasoning at times but we should never allow that to drip into our hearts and become despair. For each of our stories has many chapters and scenes and although one scene may end with dismay, the next will bring a new view.

As long as we draw breath, God's hand is still at work in us and He will intertwine our story with the lives of  many others. One day when it is all revealed it will astonish us, as we will see His loving hand upon our most desperate times and upon our loved ones, when we thought He had left us. There will be an ending to your story dear one, it will be written in the ink of love by your Savior and it will be perfect. Our narrow understanding of how ALL things can work together for good should give us pause and we should find contentment that we are not in control, but, merely children being cared for by our Heavenly Dad. "By the Spirit we cry out, "Abba Father", and the Spirit testifies with our spirit that we are God's children!'  (Abba is Aramaic for Daddy, representing a tender and compassionate relationship between Father and child.) "Now if we are children, then we are heirs, heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in His sufferings in order that we may also share in His glory." Romans 8:15-17.

Learn and practice saying things like, "This too shall pass", All will be well", "God has a plan", This WILL work together for good", "God is in this", "God loves me dearly and is faithful to me forever!"......... God will use your story to not only bless you but to bless others. And, by saying His promises aloud we will have more restful hearts during the troubling times that are a part of our life's story. So, may we all understand that our lives are epic movies that are written with purpose and care, filled with pleasures, trials, traumas and exuberant scenes of celebration and joy! Our stories will touch lives, change hearts, open minds and fill souls by the things that God will do through us! Our life is about much more than just us.

"In the same way the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And He who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints (us) in accordance with God's will." Romans 8:26,27. See God in every chapter!

Never Stop Seeking!

I am so proud of my son and his wife for how they have trusted God through the tumultuous waters of the past few years. For such young souls they have been through so much, yet, through it all they have always landed on the shores of God's grace, mercy and love.



I can't help but think about the Apostle Paul's list in (2 Corinthians 6:3-10), where he records the litany of trials that he went through in the name of Jesus. I won't list all my son's and his families trials but they were daunting and unrelenting, from his wife's near death and unimaginable suffering to his daughter's severe burns to his son's battle with a deadly virus and his own heavy burden of carrying them all physically, mentally, emotionally and financially. The two of them survived the onslaught that came upon their lives and family and they emerged with a powerful and unshakable faith that few their age can even dream of.

This past year I was especially proud of them as they sought wise counsel from their elders as they were navigating through the decisions that needed to be made post-serving over-seas for four years. They moved back to the states, re-settled in temporary accommodations, re-established every aspect of their lives, searched for a house, transportation, a new church, etc. Not everything went smoothly but it was their character that impressed me most. They acted like human beings who felt every emotion yet didn't act fake. They shared honestly about their journey and their feelings while at the same time taking it all to God.

Their story ended with blessings, not because they did everything right but because they always ran back to God after their own strength failed. Even when their faith was thin or nil, they kept believing in God and continued faithfully to go to church, read their bible and to pray. They allowed God's mysterious hand, that sometimes made no sense, finish its work and when the clouds of despair dispersed, the rain had always left a blessing of new growth behind! What Satan intended for evil God worked out for good (Genesis/Joseph)! What could have broken them, made them strong because they refused to believe that God would give up on them. Even when we give up on God, He does not give up on us! We may fall and fail to express faith but God uses every part of our trial like a compost pile for our new faith to grow!

When life seems shattered beyond repair, go to church, read your bible and pray even when you don't feel like it. God says in (James 4:8a) that, if we draw near to Him, He will draw near to us. Reach out into the darkness and be patient, for your Savior will grasp your hand and save you. Maybe not in your timing but His timing is always perfect, He is never doing just one thing, He's always working many things together for good! If your mind is disciplined by God's Holy Word, then that truth will inhabit your heart and no matter what you're feeling, those feelings will never trump your faith permanently! It may feel like He is gone but He's not, He will never leave you (Joshua 1:5). Faith is what hard times build and it is only that faith that will get you through the hard times!

God did not bless my son and his family because they deserved it or because they earned it! God blessed them because He loves them. They were saved through faith by grace. That's not just our eternal salvation but that is every situation that we need to be saved from! We are saved through faith by grace! God gives us the faith to draw near to Him even when we feel empty of it and that faith is given to us through His grace. All that we need is IN Him but if we don't draw near to Him then we will experience lack. The fullness of everything He desires for us is just beyond our diligence for seeking Him! There is a difference between God's blessings and His abundance poured out upon us! Don't sit back and throw a pitiful prayer God's way and expect Him to pour blessings all over you! Then, if things don't work out the way you wanted them too, you get angry at Him or you treat Him aloofly with a heart of indifference! Draw near to Him with a humble heart and stay near to Him, then, you will begin to see His mighty hand at work in your life and for your good. Keep doing the right things even when everything is going wrong!


He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him! Hebrews 11:6c

James 4:6b-8a, God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Come near to God and He will come near to you.

The diligent seeking of God by my son and his wife shows in the character of their children also. They sing with their unbridled voices and dance on their tiny toes while praising the Lord out of sheer innocence and joy! They go to Sunday school because their parents are faithful to take them and God shines through them, being glorified all the while! Psalm 23:6 says, "Surely Your goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life." We can all have God's blessings poured into our lives if we would just diligently draw near to Him! Seek Him and have a more personal relationship with Him this year! Take your spouse, children, grand-children, friend or family member to church, or just get there yourself. God wants to have a bond with you that becomes unbreakable and respected. Think about it.......How do you get to know and love someone? You start spending time with them and you nurture the kinship by investing yourself. Jesus was sent by the Father for this specific reason! His investment in you was a complete sacrifice of Himself and all He asks in return is that you invite Him into your heart so He can be Savior of your soul, Lord of your life and friend through all things! John 3:16 reads, "For God so loved (your name here), that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life!" Invite Him into your heart, tell Him you need Him and He is the only hope that you have. Ask Him to be your Savior, Lord and friend, then, seek Him with all your heart! The Father sent Jesus to earth so men could see the perfect likeness of God (Hebrews 1:3), Christ then sends us out among men so that they will see Him through us! That's why we're here.........to let God love us, love Him back, then, go and share that love to the lost and hurting.

"I pray that out of God's glorious riches He may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Now, to Him that is able to do immeasurably more than all we could ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be glory in the church (the people of God), and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever!" Amen  Ephesians 3:16-21