It is January and the temperature this week has been in the upper fifties! When that happens in Iowa, you must take advantage of it. So, I went on a walk and was praising God.
For some reason, I started thinking about something my dad use to say. Whenever we would get hurt, he would try to make us feel better by looking at our hurt and saying:
“You know what the good thing about this is, don’t you? It’s a long way from your heart.”
Then he’d laugh while trying to get me to laugh and think about anything else but my hurt. As I’m sure many of you can relate, those dad sayings were frustrating at the time.
Eventually, I understood his lesson behind the distraction. That no physical ailment could change my heart. That every hurt would pass and I would still be the same on the inside regardless of the outside.
I’ve had opportunity to put that saying to the test in my adult life, and I’ve realized something about Dad’s theory…
I realize that some hurts aren’t a long way from my heart. Some hurts reside there. But, they don’t have to change who I am inside.
They don’t have to change my faith.
Every lesson I learned before the hurt remains the same after.
Nothing is different. God is the same. Love is the same.
No matter how much my heart hurts.
I get to choose my perspective. I get to choose between faith or fear; victory or victim; joy or despair; bitterness or hope. It is my choice and what I choose will decide the healing of my heart.
Through the many hurts I have experienced, I have chosen to trust in Him. Trusting in Him, is an all or nothing decision. If I choose to trust Him, I can’t choose fear or bitterness. I can’t choose to be a victim or filled with despair.
It’s an all or nothing decision.
Going through divorce, cancer, and loss, didn’t change my choice to trust in Him. I know better, so I can’t pretend to be ignorant simply because my life was suddenly altered.
Even in the hardest times, I trust that God has never changed. His grace surrounds me every moment of every day. He knows all, sees all, and understands all. I trust Him with everything. I can walk through this life aiming to fulfill what I realize I may never understand.
This life may seem random to me, but it is not random to Him. And that is enough for me.
It’s in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for. Long before we first heard of Christ and got our hopes up, he had his eye on us, had designs on us for glorious living, part of the overall purpose he is working out in everything and everyone. ~Ephesians 1:11 MSG
I pray you know that you can make the choice for it to be enough for you too.
With love and joy,
Laura
Leave a Reply