finding God in the wasteland (Isaiah 35:1)
The social worker came for him yesterday. She stepped inside our door, and our child ran crying into the kitchen. He cried and clung to Will, his two-year-old tears saying, "Don't let them take me away!" Will picked him up, held him close, then buckled him in the car seat, and they took him away. …
Continue reading They came for him yesterday
I wake up with a dark hole of emptiness eating through my chest, and it takes me a second to realize why. My little girl is gone. The child that I loved from the minute I set eyes on her is gone. I still remember how she felt sleeping heavily in my arms that first …
Little girl, I'll never forget the first morning you stepped inside my front door. I noticed your hesitation, and I didn't blame you, for you had been in too many homes to count. You later told me that you didn't like any of them except for one. How could you know if I would be …
"Suffering doesn't need explanation. The experience of it calls for healing not reason because suffering splits you in two, creates a breach between you and your own existence. The rigid stance you take against your personal pain straining to erase your event, and not to include it in your present, makes you your own murderer. …
In my last post, I talked about finding strength for the task that God gives us. This post will touch on the subject of finding meaning through suffering. The verses that made such an impression on me regarding these two subjects are found in Matthew 17: But Jesus came and touched them, saying, "Rise, and have no …
God, I cannot sleep, Even though I'm exhausted, I cannot sleep because the pain strikes so deep. So deep it pins me to my bed. I want to get up to pray, to touch his suffering skin, but it hurts too much. The sob lies stillborn in my throat as I think about my son …
The toad beneath the harrow knows Exactly where each tooth point goes; The butterfly upon the road Preaches contentment to that toad. -Rudyard Kipling This poem has been running through my mind as some of our dearest friends are walking through a valley of suffering (and I have a few sorrows of my own, …
After Job's three friends finished their rebukes, a firebrand named Elihu gave his piece. Elihu was angry at the incompetency of Job's friends, and unleashed his own tirade. These words from Elihu caught my attention: Behold, I am toward God as you are; I too was pinched off from a piece of clay. Job 33:6 …
