Of Broken Dreams and Restored Joys...

My friend Marie, and I at Taughannock Falls State Park
photo credit: Wendy Woodburn

The way God works is a mystery. Only He truly knows how and where and when and why He orchestrates events and times, people and places, to correspond with His plan for our lives. Yes, we as human beings often mess things up and I find it amazing what beauty He can create from ashes.

I have messed up many things in my life. I have made decisions that have been totally self-centered and certainly not God-oriented at all. Others in my life have messed up and disappointed me, leaving me robbed of relationship and joy that comes when all is well. And yet my God has chosen to hear the cries of this poor woman and restore unto me the joy of His salvation.

I have experienced loss, but the Lord has given over and above what paltry amount of loss has been mine.

I was thinking of these things this past weekend when my friend, Marie came to visit. I was so blessed to have her in our home, a friend to laugh with, to play games with my children, and to enjoy a quiet picnic at the lake, watching the storm come in and then chasing the raindrops to the shelter of the van.

I have lost. I have lost friends and I have lost dreams. But God has given to me what I could never have dreamed possible!  He has clipped with His pruning shears here and there in my life and I am here to say that it is much better to yield the peaceable fruit of righteousness in the face of that Knife, than to resist and to chafe and to try to run away from it.

He knows what He is doing. Recently, as we sang "There Shall Be Showers of Blessing" in church, I was struck with the words of the last verse:

"There shall be showers of blessing,

If we but trust and obey;

There shall be seasons refreshing,

When we let Him have His way."

So one part of the equation is God's. The other one is ours. He never fails. How often do we? And then we have the audacity to blame Him? Look through the Bible. See how many promises of His come with conditions, like a covenant between Him and man. (more on this in a future blogpost).

Today. I am content that He gives and takes away. I bless His name. And look forward to going to my eternal Home. I encourage God's people to keep going, in spite of loss. Let God work His perfect work in you no matter what the circumstance. He does make things beautiful in His time.