Something real, something borrowed.
It has been a while since I wrote and shared something (the operative word being SHARE).
I rummaged through my mind how to get started because I have soooo much to share and certainly won't want to take them to the grave with me (I say that coz they say the burial ground is filled with unaccomplished dreams), and for me writing and inspiring has always been a lifelong dream.
However, fear of being vulnerable has kept all my 'stuff' locked up but there's no longer room to hide.
So in a bid to share and while just randomly reading through my mails I came across this one by Zondervan (Its a Christian resource) .
You know how sometimes you kind of give up that you'll ever find the "one" (Hold on, no assumptions please)...the one WORD to describe a flood of thoughts, insights and lessons or even questions about everyday living and the world around you?
Then you start reading that article or you listen in to what someone is saying and with each line you find that someone, thousands of miles away who has no clue you exist, articulates your thoughts and gives them back to you...straightened out and concise?
Jennifer Rotschild (http://www.jenniferrothschild.com/about/) did this for me with her article.
It was so on point the only thing left to do was share it. She de-cluttered my thoughts!
I pray it you find it...something real to sort of break the ice on our love-grown-cold-collabo on this Page.
BEGIN BORROWED MESSAGE:
Finding Meaning in Your Suffering
by Jennifer Rothschild
September 14, 2015
Let us step into the darkness and reach out for the hand of God. The path of faith and darkness is so much safer than the one we would choose by sight.
—George MacDonald
—George MacDonald
Psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl wrote that suffering without meaning leads to despair. And he’s right. Without meaning, there is certain to be despair. But sometimes we assume that meaning is only revealed by understanding. In other words, if something makes sense to me, then I can find meaning in it. But meaning can also exist in the absence of understanding, even if the why of our circumstances is never answered. The reason there is meaning is because of the Who. Standing at the center of every unanswered question is the person of God, who is your provision even in the midst of mystery.
Admitting we don’t understand all the ways of God isn’t the same as admitting defeat. Instead, it’s an admission of our fragile and limited humanity. It’s also an admission that comes with a gift. It frees us to relax in the unknown and revel in the mystery. Instead of resisting God’s ways, we can simply rest in them. That’s when we settle into the security of God’s sovereignty. It takes a lot of emotional and mental energy to unscrew that which is intentionally inscrutable. Scripture reveals that “the secret things belong to the LORD our God” (Deuteronomy 29:29). There are simply supposed to be things about God we do not and will never understand. But we are to trust in the Lord with all our hearts, not relying on our own understanding (Proverbs 3:5). In other words, we don’t have to understand everything about God to trust him fully.
God does not always remove question marks, but he does punctuate our lives with meaning, even in the mystery. A hard path can still be meaningful because of the encounter we have with God within and because of the mystery itself.
We are all on different places along the road of faith. Some of us have gotten lost and become distracted by detours because the questions are too many and the answers are too few. Others of us are contentedly cruising along because trusting what we don’t understand about God isn’t too hard for us most of the time. Where you are on the road is not nearly as important as the fact that you are on the road. The queen of Sheba did not allow herself to get sidetracked or to turn away from finding the truth she sought. That is what I want for you and me too. Determine to stay on your road, my friend. Bumpy or smooth, curvy or straight — stay on the road of faith. I have decided to journey on, and that one decision makes every injury hurt less and every question feel less threatening.
As you keep walking and seeking, if you find yourself smackdab in the middle of a hard place on your road of faith, I want you to remember three things:
1. Every Struggle Is a Snapshot
What you struggle with — whether it’s debt, disease, grief, or any other number of difficulties — is not the whole picture. It’s just one snapshot in the whole photo album that is your life. It is not forever. Eventually, life’s pages will turn. Sure, this hard place will always be a part of you, but eventually, it will not be the biggest part of you. Just like an old photo in an album, the pain will become a faded memory. And if your struggle is something like a life-threatening cancer, even that awful circumstance isn’t permanent. In light of eternity, even what is terminal is temporary. If you’re living with a disability or chronic disease, you may think every page of your life features the same snapshot. Each day is a picture of pain, loss, and struggle. But even what is chronic will eventually cease. Even if it doesn’t cease until the day your body passes from death to life, it will go away. Keep your pain in perspective — eternal perspective.
What you struggle with — whether it’s debt, disease, grief, or any other number of difficulties — is not the whole picture. It’s just one snapshot in the whole photo album that is your life. It is not forever. Eventually, life’s pages will turn. Sure, this hard place will always be a part of you, but eventually, it will not be the biggest part of you. Just like an old photo in an album, the pain will become a faded memory. And if your struggle is something like a life-threatening cancer, even that awful circumstance isn’t permanent. In light of eternity, even what is terminal is temporary. If you’re living with a disability or chronic disease, you may think every page of your life features the same snapshot. Each day is a picture of pain, loss, and struggle. But even what is chronic will eventually cease. Even if it doesn’t cease until the day your body passes from death to life, it will go away. Keep your pain in perspective — eternal perspective.
2. Every Trial Can Be a Teacher
Your struggles may cause you to experience loss, but you can also gain wisdom and deeper understanding if you allow them to teach you. I learned many years ago that it was counterproductive to fight against what God had allowed — namely, blindness. I gain far more from the loss by asking it to be my friend and my teacher. At this point in my life, I expect blindness to give more than it takes from me. I have received wisdom and greater faith because I have been willing to learn from my blindness.
Your struggles may cause you to experience loss, but you can also gain wisdom and deeper understanding if you allow them to teach you. I learned many years ago that it was counterproductive to fight against what God had allowed — namely, blindness. I gain far more from the loss by asking it to be my friend and my teacher. At this point in my life, I expect blindness to give more than it takes from me. I have received wisdom and greater faith because I have been willing to learn from my blindness.
What about your situation? Are you willing to submit to it as your teacher? Think about the knowledge you have found in your unanswered questions. What foolishness can you leave behind because of what you will learn from it? Suffering may be a demanding schoolmaster, but you will graduate with a wisdom you can’t often learn anywhere else. So be a diligent student, my friend.
3. Every Mystery of Faith Can Become a Ministry
Every struggle contains an opportunity for you to redeem your loss by reaching out to others. Did you know, for example, that the apostle Paul wrote significant portions of the New Testament — Colossians, Philemon, Ephesians, Philippians — while he was in prison in Rome? He could have seen incarceration as lost time or have fallen into self-pity. Paul could have legitimately indulged in resisting his circumstances by refusing to let go of asking, “Why, God?” He could have spent his days crying out, “God, are you fair? God, are you aware of me in this prison?”
Every struggle contains an opportunity for you to redeem your loss by reaching out to others. Did you know, for example, that the apostle Paul wrote significant portions of the New Testament — Colossians, Philemon, Ephesians, Philippians — while he was in prison in Rome? He could have seen incarceration as lost time or have fallen into self-pity. Paul could have legitimately indulged in resisting his circumstances by refusing to let go of asking, “Why, God?” He could have spent his days crying out, “God, are you fair? God, are you aware of me in this prison?”
Some people spend their whole lives asking questions like, “God, do you hear prayer?” “God, are you there?” “God, are you aware?” But what if you take those same kinds of questions and reverse them: “Do I care? Am I there for others? Am I aware of the pain around me? Am I an answer to the prayers of others?” When we become part of the answer for others who suffer, the questions concerning our own suffering seem to take on greater meaning and, at the same time, diminish in significance.
Dear friend, it can feel like the things of this earth are permanent, but they aren’t. They are just a snapshot, a screen capture, a blurry and imperfect image of a bunch of pieces loosely knit together by our hopes, plans, and circumstances. And even when those pieces are broken or missing, they can still teach us and become a source of ministry. The empty, ugly, and hard places in life can actually become the places where we find the real peace we long for because God is there.
Every difficult, confusing season in life offers a choice. You can either surrender your questions and sorrow to God so he can use them, or you can surrender to bitterness and the enemy of your soul, who will use them against you. Don’t give him the weapons to hurt you. Trust God, be patient, and even forgive him if you need to. Humble yourself and wrap yourself in your blanket of faith. In doing so, you will turn your sorrow into a tool that refines you and makes you beautiful. In doing so, you will find meaning in your sorrow.
_____________
Taken from God Is Just Not Fair by Jennifer Rothschild
Jennifer has written 9 books and Bible studies, including the bestsellers Lessons I Learned in the Dark and Self-Talk, Soul-Talk. She has appeared on Good Morning America, Dr. Phil, Life Today, and a Billy Graham television special and spoken for Women of Faith and Extraordinary Women. She is the founder of the Fresh Grounded Faith conferences and womensministry.net. She lost her sight at age 15 and regularly travels and speaks around the country, sharing her story and all God has done in her life. Jennifer lives with her family in Missouri.
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