I realize that everyone in my small group has an issue in their life, whether it's as small as worrying about what to wear to Saturday's wedding to as big as issues about life, love, and relationships, or legal conflicts with roommates, or just overall feeling suffocated by life or by your living situation. I'm humbled however by the even greater worries that mankind face every day...or rather the kind of worries that people outside of our luxurious, sheltered world have to face each day. Here are some pictures that I want to share with you:
If you think your salary is low, how about her?
When you feel like giving up, think of this man:
If you think you suffer in life, do you suffer as much as he does?
If your society is unfair to you, how about her?
I feel like I've been plunged into freezing, cold water. And I've surfaced...humbled. My mind is clear now. I wonder what kind of person I would be if I'd grown up from that sort of environment where I would use flattened bottles for shoes and corpses as entertainment. I wonder what kind of person I would be if I've never had a good meal in my life, and have never known luxury at its finest. If I was that kind of person, and I got the chance to come to America, come to Gracepoint...I think I would explode with gratefulness. I think I would never complain; I think I would find joy in the smallest, most banal things that people overlook each day. And food...oh man- I think I would cry with tears of joy every time I see it. Oh, how rich and full our lives are! I'm so thankful.
I think this can be an analogy to when we finally go to heaven and meet our Father. I think it'll be like entering America...for those kids...but x somehugeridiculousnumber. I don't think we'll know true joy until we're there. I don't think we'll know what richness really means until we're there. I don't think we'll know what the word "awe" really means until we're there. I know it'll be wonderful.
"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth..." Matthew 6:19 because God has already provided all the treasures in Heaven for you, He has already ordained a place for you there, and is just waiting for you to finally come home.
I don't know what my point in this post is...I'm half rambling but half ruminating on the way I live my life. I guess I'm just trying to shine a light in the darkness. I re-read John:1 yesterday and the line "The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it" struck out to me. I don't know but sometimes I can relate with that statement "the darkness has not understood it..." It's hard, sometimes, to turn to God for your problems. But "Light of the world...he stepped down into darkness...opened my eyes...let me see."
God wants to be in every part of your life, he purposefully stepped into darkness...to share our troubles and to carry the burden with us. He loves us so much but we take it for granted sometimes...or even worse, we don't always think that's true. I know at times when rage or stress takes ahold of me, or when I can't handle something anymore...I sometimes wonder "Why God?...Do you really love me? Because if you did...why would you let me suffer?" or... "Are you really there?" But then God does things in His own unique, loving way that eludes me at first but then it hits me like a ton of bricks later on when I realize that He had a plan to make me stronger or wiser...
So don't give up on Him. Sometimes I do, and it hurts so much when I do because I know it hurts Him too.
Love,
Lily
