Unshackled Moments ~ April 11, 2017 ~ Beauty From Ashes

We all have these times of hardship and struggle. This is not what I expected. This is not how my life was supposed to be. Isn't God supposed to take away the pain? We have been broken and damaged and discarded. People who swore they cared treated us as though we had no value. We treated ourselves even worse. We cried out to God for help and protection and heard silence in return. Our walls crumbled, and every weakness and vulnerability seemed to be exposed to the fires of the enemy. This isn't right. What about mercy? What about refuge? What about comfort?

Dreams died. Their ghosts call curses upon our contentment. Wishes even fade and goals become fantasy and daydreams. Nothing I thought would happen is happening. Reality is painful and life is hard. But God doesn't see the broken mess that didn't fulfill his or her potential that you do when He sees you. God isn't disappointed with how things turned out for you, not if you've taken the pain and the failures as a reason to turn toward Him rather than away. He thinks the difference between what we imagined for ourselves and our life would be like and the way it is to be the difference between life and death.

I'm quite sure that the thief crucified beside Jesus never imagined that to get caught up in hardship and crime that would eventually lead to execution would turn out to be the best thing that could happen to him. But it was the moment of his destruction and death that brought him life. It was brokenness and having life completely fall apart that lets the addict know he needs God. But more than just finding relationship with God, the disparity between what we hoped for and wanted and the reality of what is leads to something beautiful. God looks at us and sees beauty and wonder and value. Our fractured hearts allow our lives to become a prism that displays something amazing and beautiful and unique as the light of the love of God shines on us and is reflected.

The empty spaces in our life that were impossible to fill with all the things that we tried to fill them with become wells that hold the living water of life and love. We can become not what we hoped for or wanted but actually something more, something better than we ever dreamed of or expected. The unexpected result of disappointment can be life, not just for ourselves, but also for others who see the surprising beauty of what rose from the ashes of hopes burnt away. Gold is purified and made valuable by the fire, but if gold could feel, I'm sure it would despise and hate the process. We don't need to curse the fire, It may feel like destruction, but in truth it only burnt away what didn't need to be there anyway, and hollowed us out to be filled with life and able to receive the love of God.

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