So it’s not always easy, is it? Crazy stuff drops out of nowhere when we least expect it. Things that completely take our thoughts and knock us off track momentarily or maybe longer ~ just because they do and we feel weak and helpless, overwhelmed, disappointed ~ and smack-dab in the middle of it all. Where to turn and what to do when rough patches in the road trip us up so very quickly and make us lose our focus on what’s true and right and good?
Our get up and go gets up and leaves us shaking, unmotivated and exhausted. Worry becomes a nasty game changer as it volunteers to take its dangerous position in the playing field. Panic and fear just follow along and then what? We have a bad game going on and we find ourselves in need of a supernatural power source that can empower us and pick us up from the depths of where we are and pull us to the heavenly heights of where He is!
Today, we are needy people needing a double dose of God’s grace and favour and ah yes, His compassion and mercy~ all victorious in winning the battle. His mercies are new every morning and even on the rough days, Jesus gives mercy and hope for the road! Put a dash of both in your “coffee to go” this morning! His grace is amazing, His love unfailing and His guidance is true and right and good. He will never leave you ‘nor forsake you. Trust Him for that! Trust Him now, and where worry plays out give it over into His capable hands. Where panic surfaces in the chaotic and frightening, know God’s protective, scarred hands are all over it to make it better and to bring you closer to His heart!
Beautiful and weary soul, He’s got this! ~ let Him work!
John 16:33
“I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world, you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”
Zephaniah 3:17
“The LORD your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.
“Psalm 50:15
“Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me.”
Happy New Year!
Paul was passing the torch to Timothy as his successor and he knew there would be opposition. He knew It wouldn’t be easy to fan the flame and carry on in his absence. So he encouraged with God’s truth.
So what do we do in the silences now, after the Christmas scurry is hushed? It’s been different this year, so crazy, different and it might not seem like it was Christmas at all. It could have been so ‘over-the-top’ busy with schedules, shopping, programs, plans, preparation, cooking, caring, baking, bringing, wrapping, and decorating that we hardly had time to breathe, let alone take it all in. Ahh, but it probably wasn’t that way at all. It was most likely a more hushed season, spent alone without family or friends, questioning, wondering and waiting in the shadows of what’s to come. No matter what it was it’s come and gone!
So now it’s over and done for another year. Now it’s time to put Christmas back into the boxes of tradition for safekeeping. Yeah, we’ll do that ~ all of us, some sooner than later, but it will all get packed up once more and stuffed into boxes, closets and attics, garages and spare rooms. We’ll clear the clutter and some kind of ‘Normal’ for us will surface once again. Yeah, we will, we’ll put Christmas away but, let’s take care to not pack it away too tightly ~ out of sight, out of mind. Before we pack breakables into boxes and stuff boxes into corners, let’s tuck Christmas away into our ‘daily’ world through warm memories of a Christmas past; the Christmas of all the years we’ve had to spend with those near and dear to us without the threat of COVID’s icy fingers nipping at our heels. Let’s wrap those memories up snugly and tuck them into our hearts for some of the rainy, snowy days that are sure to lie ahead.
Those days when “alone” creeps in and the sun doesn’t shine and the head hurts, the heart hurts, and the soul aches and difficulties are very much there, glaring into our faces. Ahh, the memories of a sweet Christmas past, the reason for our celebration with family and friends and that Saviour of the world whose birth we celebrate all need to be packed fondly into our souls with extra special care because they’re so fragile, so breakable, and we are all so needy for the love they represent. So cherish the treasure of Christmas past! Cherish the warmth and the love that lives on because you choose to hold it in your heart forever and ever and it makes no difference that no one is there! It doesn’t matter then, that not one soul is around, because you’ve made a choice to hold that joy that was, close, and now on a rainy day, it’s still there in the hushed silences of the Christmas scurry when Christmas is over and put away. Yeah, when Christmas is over, and the new year begins, Our Saviour still reigns with a love that still lives on! Still loves, still cares, still protects and still brings Hope even in “Alone.” Nothing can change that. Not anything! Not ever!
Hope and Healing In Hard Places 