In Moments Like These...

 

My soul yearns for you in the night;
    in the morning my spirit longs for you.

Isaiah 26:9

 

Not a typical devotion...Just wanted to share.

 

We are ten days from Christmas...and my heart is breaking for this nation.

In Oregon, they are dealing with the fear of one man's pain that came through the front doors of a shopping mall.
And then...yesterday the tragic horror of the unimaginable in Connecticut.

 

Here we are in the middle of what is supposed to be the most wonderful time of the year - - a time when we celebrate the coming of The Savior - - and our country's heart is breaking.

 

At moments like these - when tragedies happen from massive storms that create devastation to the massacre of innocents - - we can be hard pressed to see grace or feel love. We struggle to understand how Our God - - Who loves the world so much that He sacrificed His Son for us - - can allow this kind of pain to occur. I don't understand it - - but I do know that Our God is always with us. 

He never forsakes us.

He always perseveres.

 

In moments like these - there are no answers.

This world can be a cruel and often is a place for evil to pervade and that is awful. It is horrible.

But...it is also in moments like these that we realize all we can do is rely on Him.

 

In the famous poem, "Footprints in the Sand", the author writes of her frustration of looking back over her life and seeing that in the hard times of life there was only one set of footprints - but in the good times there were two. She looks at Jesus and asks, "Why did you abandon me when I needed you the most?"

And he replies, "During the hard times there is only one set of footprints, because I was carrying you."

 

Bad stuff happens.

We are a fallen world and evil gets to win too many of the battles.

Sometimes I can convince myself that the bad happens so we can truly see the beauty of God in contrast. But at a moment like this I can't even begin to wrap my head or my heart around the "why".

 

I will never understand - at least while I am here on earth - why God doesn't stop the horrific things that happen nearly every moment of the day.

But, what I do understand is that through it all He is with me.

He is with you.

He is with us all.

Every step of the way.

 

Please join me in praying for the families, the community and this country as we try and reconcile the pain of these moments - the devestation of Sandy, the events at Clackamas Mall in Oregon and the horror of the shootings in Connecticut.

 

In moments like these all we can do is lift up our hands to the Lord and allow Him to pick us up and carry us through.

 

I love you all.

 

Scripture

Isaiah 26:7-21

 

Quote 

 “Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars.”

Khalil Gibran

 

Comments

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