Good morning…
Hurricane hell. Deep depression. Open heart surgery. Harsh cancer treatment. War and terror. Division, divorce, and death. Darkness seems to seep into every crevice of our wounding world.
“The power of God’s promise stunned me so much that I actually gasped out loud,” writes Kay Warren on page 105 of Choose Joy.
I will give you treasures of darkness,
riches stored in secret places,
so that you may know that I am the LORD,
the God of Israel, who summons you by name.
– Isaiah 45:3
“My first thought was, I don’t want to be in this darkness,” admits Kay. “I don’t want my loved one to be in this darkness. I want out of this dark place NOW. My second thought was, Can this really be true? Can there be treasures hidden in darkness? My next thought was, If there are treasures of darkness, I don’t think I want them. Thanks anyway. Because it probably means I will only find them if I’m in pain, and God, I don’t want to be in pain anymore.”
“All I could see in that moment was the track of sorrow in my life; joy was nowhere near,” Kay continues. “The immediate challenge was to believe that treasures in the darkness actually exist and then to believe that I could find them. And yes, I had to accept and embrace the truth that these treasures are a special category of gifts from God, hidden riches ONLY to be found in the secret places of my deepest pain and agony.”
“One of my favorite authors, Henri Nouwen, says, ‘Our cup is often so full of pain that joy seems completely unreachable. When we are crushed like grapes, we cannot think of the wine we will become.'” Kay realizes, “I had to make a decision, and you do too: Will I surrender to God in the darkness, believing that I will find treasures of joy, blessing and meaning here? Although I didn’t like it, God had allowed me to be in that dark place. I had to decide whether I would embrace it so he could lead me to the treasures I could only find in suffering.”
These are new things I’m teaching, and they can’t be reconciled with old habits. Nobody would ever use a piece of new cloth to patch an old garment because when the patch shrinks, it pulls away and makes the tear even worse. And nobody puts new, unfermented wine into old wineskins because if he does, the wine will burst the skins; they would lose both the wineskins and the wine. No, the only appropriate thing is to put new wine into new wineskins (Mark 2:21-22, VOICE).
As we begin to fill our new wineskins with the new wine we are becoming, Kay ends chapter six with this heartfelt prayer: “You are there to walk with me and show me treasures I wouldn’t have seen any other way. Keep me from rejecting the gift of joy that sorrow brings. May I seek you as the one who is close, who is intimate, who calls me by name. May the pain I am in push me toward a great passion for you and a greater joy in you. In the name of Jesus, amen.”
…Sue…
P.S. My dear friend Gina from Black Mountain, N.C. shared three newsletters from their neighborhood as together they find treasures in the dark aftermath of Hurricane Helene. Please keep the needs of our North Carolina neighbors in your constant prayers.
1st newsletter
https://mailchi.mp/eb9e95c3be02/storm-update
2nd newsletter
https://mailchi.mp/8581c99e7b3c/2nd-storm-update
3rd newsletter
https://mailchi.mp/15479f491cce/3rd-storm-update
Today’s update from Gina reads:
“Our little town is still quiet but businesses are slowly opening. They are on a boil only water alert but with that they can flush toilets and have hand washing stations. Businesses are also slowly opening.
One friend who lives in a home that was built in 1910 and is on the edge of town near a waterway suffered horribly in her downstairs but that old house held. From the outside you would never know that it had 5’ of water on the inside. She is well connected here having been here for 35 years, and has many friends both to stay with and friends helping her. I did a few loads of laundry and have word to her that we can bring chain saws to help clean her property when she is ready.
All in all the people of North Carolina are very resilient. It was the good-old-boys who came out with their chain saws, tractors and ATV’s clearing the roads. It was independent helicopter operators who went into these hollers and rescued people.
While certain areas are still totally disaster areas like Biltmore Village, Swannanoa, The Bee Tree Valley, River Arts District and more, clean up efforts are well underway. This is my stomping grounds but I’ve heard of other hamlets that are also working hard to restore their communities. Thousands dead and not declared dead because they only declare dead when they can identify. There were morgue tractor trailers even in Black Mountain. Thousands of body bags ordered in different areas.
Independent and smart, mostly God fearing, these are the most resilient.”
Thanking Gina for her vulnerable, generous heart, I wrote: “Feeling the emotions of the people in your area certainly helps us to pray more deeply.”
