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Facing Disappointment With Facts and Faith
Life is hard. Disease destroys precious loved ones. Injustice extinguishes innocent life. Dreams are crushed and die. Prayers remain unanswered. How do I accept the reality of pain and disappointment without losing hope? How do I trust that God might never answer prayer the way I want and still keep asking for a miracle? I’ve told myself all the usual answers: God is good and he loves me. He is sympathetic to my cry. He knows what he’s doing. Sometimes he answers, “wait.” Working behind the scenes, he will redeem the pain. I still believe these truths, but I need something more. Do I give up hope of ever seeing what I wish…
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Sharper in Real Life
This month, I am honored to feature the writing of a woman who has come into my life in the last two years. Today, she shares the joy, freedom and growth that we experience through friendship. I remember the first time she came to my home. I was hosting a birthday party, and her daughter was at the top of the guest list. Though I didn’t know her well, we worshipped together, and I knew we had things in common: we loved music, we married sports enthusiasts, and we were each parenting teenagers, newborns, and a few in between. We greeted loudly that Saturday morning: giggly girls hugging hello, baby…
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What Does Trusting God Look Like?
When friends are frozen by fear and anxiety, I often suggest they recite Psalm 56:3 over and over: “When I am afraid, I will trust in You.” But what does it mean to trust God? What does it look like in real life? How do we understand how to trust Him? I recently asked this question on Facebook and was deeply blessed by the wisdom and experience of friends who have learned how to trust God in the refining fires of life in a fallen world. One scripture reference was cited again and again, probably the best go-to verse on trusting God, Proverbs 3:5-6: Trust in the Lord with all…
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The Process is the Point
I am a “cut to the chase” kind of girl. I like to take the shortest route and find the end as quickly and efficiently as possible. If I can skip a step or two and come to a viable conclusion—perfect! Done. But, last year, at a writer’s conference, I was challenged with these words by Lysa TerKeurst, “The process is the point.” These are the kind of words that keep popping back into frame as I rush through life and bemoan my circumstances. They echo in my mind as though God Himself fashioned those words just for me. The process is the point. The trials are relevant. Our…
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Suffering – Imposition or Entrustment?
Several years ago I had the privilege of hearing veteran missionary, Dr. Helen Roseveare, speak at a staff conference for field missionaries of Entrust, International, in Hungary. As a result I read her book, He Gave Us a Valley. In it, Helen describes her twenty years of ministry in what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo. I think perhaps her life and experience may inform on how to respond in the challenging times in which we live Helen went to the field in 1953 and her twenty-year ministry spanned the Congolese civil war where she found herself captured, beaten and brutally raped. Nevertheless, she returned to the Congo in…
