When I am Discouraged

by Lorie Reading on Monday, March 7, 2011 at 12:40pm

from Facebook note

"Sorrow is not a stanger to any of us, though only a few have learned that is is not our enemy either." -John and Stasi Eldredge* "Happiness is solely based on our circumstance, while contentment transcends our circumstances."* Contentment is in the soul.
I'm troubled by the belief that Christians should always be happy. This is so far from the truth. Jesus said "My soul is crushed with grief to the point of death." Mark 14:34 and He went and prayed. David said "Why am I discouraged? Why is my heart so sad?" but he also said "I will put my hope in God! I will praise him again- my Savior and my God!" Psalm 43:5 So many people have thorns or adversary in their life. Sometimes they have to live with it their whole lives. However, as Christians we don't have the promise of joy, joy, joy all the time, but help in our suffering. "When things went wrong in people's lives, whether it was about their physical or spirtitual condition or some tragedy that happened to them, I don't recall Jesus ever looking for the hand of God in it. Instead, he had compassion on suffering people."*
Our community lost 2 people to suicide last week. One was a neighbor and a client of mine. I cannot relate to the devastation it caused his family. Can anyone really understand it? I don't know the pain he was experiencing or the torment of his inner demons. As a wise old man told me, "Nobody knows the pain he might of been going through" Sometimes pain is emotional. So until you've walked in someone's shoes... I don't believe suicide is the answer however I don't want to judge the person.
"The last thing a trouble person needs is to be judged."* What I need when I get in a pit of depression or heartache is to be in communion with God and really listening for his voice. Our noisy world keeps that voice out. "There are fewer and fewer oases of silence in our noisy world. Communication has higher value for us than contemplation. Information is in greater demand than reflection." -Barbara Brown Taylor* I have a hard time when I get down to really reflect on God's word or pray. It's the last thing Satan wants me to do. This is spiritual war. We are equipped as Christians to deal with things if we use the tools God gave us, prayer and His Word.
"For our present trouble are small and won't last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever! So we don't look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. for the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see wil last forever." 2 Corinthians 4:17,18 This world is not my home.
"Adversaity reveals genius, Prosperity conceals it" -Roman Poet Horace* Don't get to caught up in things.
"And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul?" Matthew 16:26
Most of these words were not my own but just pieces of wisdom I've gleened from the Bible and others.

*excerpts from the book "Living with Thorns" Mary Ann Froehlich
Bible verses taken from the New Living Translation

Messages From Beyond?

We had something interesting happen the other day. Rog, Erik and I were at dad's picking up brush piles from the fields and on the radio was the song "You are my shining star" Which I reminded Erik was the song that gma Beverly's favorite bear "Ringo" played. We had gotten her the bear at the hospital once and it had a star on it's foot so she named it Ringo. We had put it in the casket with her when she died. After we were done working in the field I checked my cell phone which was on me in a case and there was a picture of Beverly on the screen. A picture that was taken 3 years ago and mixed in with lots of other pics on my cell. Erik commented "That's Weird" and Rog simply said "Mom is saying Hi" :)
This story is similar to a story shared by my sister. "Annette was down in Arkansas when Mom passed and we couldn't get in touch with her for a while. When we did Annette was very upset that we hadn't been able to let her know mom was so bad. She was crying and when she got into the truck with her friend her cell phone started making strange flashes, then up popped a picture of mom that she had in with all her other pictures"
Also shared by my sister, Mary who lost her husband of 50 years this past June, is this story. "One morning I woke up to the smell of Old Spice, and there isn't any Old Spice in the house. The smell was all through the house for most of the day. (This has happened once more time since then) Bill loved Old Spice but when he was so sick he couldn't wear it because the smell made him sick . The kids would always buy him the expensive after shave and we would always smile at each other because Old Spice was what he liked the best and me too because it is what Dad always wore and Bill had wore when we were going together."
And again a story by Mary about my brother-in-law. "at Christian's(their grandson) BD party...Bill had always wanted to get him a Nerf machine gun and Bill would always put it in the cart and I would have to tell him we couldn't buy it for Christian because his mom didn't want him to play with guns. But this year she called and said if I wanted to get the Nerf gun to go ahead and get it, because he was begging for one. So I did and it was the best thing he ever got, or so he said. After the party I told Bill(Jr) how happy Dad would have been seeing Christian so happy with the dart gun, as I was telling Bill this, he was folding up the birthday gift bags, he felt there was something inside one and tipped it over and emptied it into his hand, I saw the look on his face and asked, "What is it?" He showed it to me. It was one of the memory rocks that they had for Bill at the funeral home. I feel this was another way God has allowed Bill to let us know his precense is with us."
I had to share these stories for those who have lost loved ones so they may know that God doesn't stop caring about our sorrow. I believe He sometimes gives us these glimpses of our loved ones, even though they are physically gone from us. Feel free to share your stories with me. I'd love to hear them.

140 Characters or Less

"There are fewer and fewer oases of silence in our noisy world. Communication has higher value for us than contemplation. Information is in greater demand than reflection" -Barbara Brown Taylor
I once reflected on many things and wrote lengthy and somewhat boring blogs. Lately I've noticed that I tend to only read things summed up in a short paragraph or two. I also think of my thoughts, "If it can't be said in 140 characters of less it is not worth saying. I've become a product of the texting and facebooking generation.
I think there is something to be said about few words and silence. Times to be quiet and hear what God is trying to say to us. Times to listen to others instead of worrying about what I have to say myself.