“You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.” Psalm 23:5b
I remember standing in our field with my husband at sundown one day, thankfulness and grace and mercy and wonder flooding my…
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Source: My Cup Overflows
Insight on what might unconsciously lead a sincerely sympathetic, well-intended believer to inadvertently join the ranks of Job’s miserable comforters.
Serious food for thought here as every follower of Jesus Christ does well to examine the motivations of the heart before they speak and act. This is an area with which I personally struggle and it’s complicated by the truth that we are often driven by conflicting motivations. A sincerely righteous desire marred by sinful selfishness – at least in my case.
I am so thankful that I have the privilege of walking through the valley of the shadow of death with Melanie. It’d be my preference than neither her nor I, or any other parent for that matter, ever find themselves on this path, but this heartbroken mother has served as a blessing and encouragement to me and many other grieving parents. She turns our hearts and minds back to the lover of our souls when our hearts are torn between longing for God’s presence and comfort and a desire to hold Him at arm’s length for failing to intercede and prevent our suffering.
(Clink on the link entire “view the original post” highlighted in red below to read the article and “thelifeididntchoose” to access Melanie’s blog.)
Most of us know the story of Job.
A righteous man, singled out by Satan to be tempted, ends up bereft of his children, his fortune and his health.
Sitting in the dust, scraping the pus from his wounds, three friends join him in his misery.
And they make it worse.
It’s hard to imagine that after burying a child, anything that people say or do can make you feel worse-but it is possible.
I had many friends and family that brought genuine comfort to my spirit.
They were the ones who spoke courage to my battered heart and helped me face another day when all I wanted to do was crawl under the covers and pray that the sun refused to shine. And I will never be able to repay them for that kindness.
But there were others….people who wanted to make sense of a senseless tragedy.
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At some point, every suffering Christian is encouraged to “choose joy” and move beyond their pain. And how can any good Christian argue with such biblical advice? But, as my grief counselor often says . . .
“What else does the Bible say?”
“When pain almost strangles us and darkness is our closest friend, what should we do?”
“For years, I thought the best response was cheerful acceptance. Since God uses everything for our good and His glory, I felt the most God-honoring attitude was to appear joyful all the time. Even when I was confused and angry. Even when my heart was breaking. And especially when I was around people who didn’t know Christ.”
Vaneetha Rendall Risner has something worth consideration to share on this topic. Click on the source link below to see what else the Bible has to say about how to handle suffering.
Source: Lament: Beauty out of Bitterness – Vaneetha Rendall
Jesus of Nazareth was humiliated, tortured, and ostracized. For some of us, the passion (suffering) inflicted upon Jesus is not so unlike what many of us have experienced in terms of our own traum…
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Source: PTSD Spirituality: Easter, Co-Wounded with Jesus
Jesus helps us to heal from PTSD soul wounds. Understanding how Jesus is the Christ can help us better engage Jesus as a healer. The fact that Jesus is fully human and fully divine enables us to …
Source: PTSD Spirituality: Jesus on the Cross and PTSD Soul Wounds
(Clink on the link highlighted in red entitled “view original post” below to read the complete article and “thelifeididntchoose” to access the blog.)
“On the one hand Death is the triumph of Satan, the punishment of the Fall, and the last enemy. Christ shed tears at the grave of Lazarus and sweated blood in Gethsemane: the Life of Lives that was in Him detested this penal obscenity not less than we do, but more.
On the other hand, only he who loses his life will save it. We are baptized into the death of Christ, and it is the remedy for the Fall. Death is, in fact, what some modern people call “ambivalent.” It is Satan’s great weapon and also God’s great weapon: it is holy and unholy; our supreme disgrace and our only hope; the thing Christ came to conquer and the means by which He conquered.” C.S. Lewis, Miracles
Bury a child and suddenly the death of Christ becomes oh, so personal. The image of Mary at the foot of the…
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“Mystery, ambiguity, uncertainty. These are places where we reach an end of ourselves, places where we have to stop, stop and take off our shoes. If we don’t, the mystery, the ambiguity, the uncertainty will one day prove too much for us. If we must have all our questions answered before we can go forward in our relationship with God, there will come a day when we won’t go forward. It may come at Gethsemane. At Calvary. Or Auschwitz.
Or at the death of a son.
For now we see in a glass darkly, but then face to face, and now we know in part, but then we shall know fully just as we have been fully known (I Corinthians 13:12).
So until then, what?
We feel our way in the dark.
Until we find each other.
We huddle together in the storm.
Wet and shivering, but together.
And maybe in the end it will be our huddling in the storm that gives us more comfort than our understanding of the storm.”
~Ken Gire, The Weathering Grace of God
Have you ever seen those Magic Eye 3D pictures that look random at first glance but then reveal a hidden picture? Maybe there’s a group of you looking and someone says, “Wow – look at that! It’s a …
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Source: How well did I understand grace before I understood grace? – Escape to Reality
This post from Flannelgraphs reminds me of an old Roberta Flack song, “Killing Me Softly with His Song”. Below are the lyrics and a link to the original soundtrack from 1973 on YouTube.
“Killing Me Softly With His Song”
[Chorus]
Strumming my pain with his fingers
Singing my life with his words
Killing me softly with his song
Killing me softly with his song
Telling my whole life with his words
Killing me softly with his song
I heard he sang a good song
I heard he had a style
And so I came to see him
To listen for a while
And there he was this young boy
A stranger to my eyes
[Chorus]
I felt all flushed with fever
Embarassed by the crowd
I felt he found my letters
And read each one out loud
I prayed that he would finish
But he just kept right on
[Chorus]
He sang as if he knew me
In all my dark despair
And then he looked right through me
As if I wasn’t there
And he just kept on singing
Singing clear and strong
Strumming my pain with his fingers
Singing my life with his words
Killing me softly with his song
Killing me softly with his song
Telling my whole life with his words
Killing me softly with his song
Don’t skip the video — the lyrics alone don’t do the song justice and Ms. Flack sings it so beautifully! “Killing Me Softly With His Song”.
Not all the lyrics express my feelings, but the idea that a stranger could so clearly speak the heart of another certainly fits.
Caitlin, the author of “Fixing Me”, shares her heart, story and faith with humility and eloquence. A teaser for the article follows. I hope you will take the time to click on the link highlighted in red below!
“What do you do when you’re angry with the Creator of the universe and the Lover of your soul? When you’re incredibly disappointed in your Redeemer and feel as though He can’t be trusted with the things, the people you treasure most? What does a professing believer do with that depth of confusion and spiritual chaos? . . .”
Source: Fixing Me – flannelgraphs – Dealing with faith and finding healing in the depths of loss.
The power of validation and affirmation. We all know there are no perfect Christians – it’s inherent in our theology – so why do we try to wear masks of perfection?
Boxx Banter 