Good morning…
During class yesterday, we read aloud Kay Warren’s words on page 107 in Choose Joy.
“But the reality is, this is earth, not heaven. Sin, pain, illness, loss, separation, grief, mental illness, financial ruin, death, and a whole host of other terrible circumstances happen on a daily basis, and each of us needs to prepare for dark days. And the thing is, you don’t prepare for the emotional darkness by stockpiling canned food or reading survival manuals or staying up at night dreading the future and being paralyzed by it. What I am suggesting you do is what the apostle Paul instructed us in Colossians 2:7: Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness (NLT).”
After class, within a few hours, two emails came from class members, continuing our learning with God.
One shared the Jesus Calling quote for the day. Author Sarah Young wrote: “This is the way of wisdom: trusting Me no matter what happens in your life. It is through trust that you follow Me along the right path. There are many things that seem random or wrong as you go along your journey. Yet I am able to fit them all into a comprehensive plan for good—My Master Plan.”
Soon after, the next email came in sharing an excerpt from The Rom-Commers by Katherine Center: “Life is always full of worries and struggles, losses and disappointments, late-night googling of bizarre symptoms – all tumbling endlessly over one another like clothes in the dryer. It’s not like any of us ever gets to a place where we’ve solved everything forever and we never have another problem. That’s not how life works… Tragedy is a given. There is no version of human life that doesn’t involve reams of it. The question is what we do in the face of it all.”
Now wonder with me: “What do we do in the face of all of the terrible circumstances happening on a daily basis?”
We send our roots down deep into our ever-present God, who fits all of life’s pain into a comprehensive Master Plan. We are confident that God is able to orchestrate everything to work toward something good and beautiful when we love Him and accept His invitation to live according to His plan (Romans 8:28, VOICE).
Investing in a well-established root system and trusting in God’s eternal plan, our ordinary lives gradually overflow with thankfulness, as we choose joy amid life’s many sorrows.
…Sue…
P.S. Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash. Illustration by Colin Laurel.
