Just want to encourage you today.

You may not understand why various things happen–the sad, miserable, discouraging things that make hope simply a notion. I’ve had my share of that stuff. While I wish I possessed some magical wisdom for you, there are some realities I’ve come to believe and there’s a promise I cling (yes cling) to–these I’d like to share. They’re found across many pages of the Bible. They go like this:

~God is love.
~God wants us to know him.
~God has done, is doing and will do all he can to get us back to a face-to-face experience of his love.
~We are free to make choices. (I struggle with this because I often want God to stop or undo the consequences…and he doesn’t always choose to. This means that our prayers aren’t good luck charms and God doesn’t respond to them as a genie.)
~I can’t understand everything about God; I have to be at peace with that.
~God has already been good–he doesn’t have to prove his goodness to me.
~God’s grace is an outpouring of his love in ways I’ll never prove worthy of.
~I need to stay in tune with God so that I know how to help others see him more clearly–this is a remedy for despair.
~Despair is literally killing people.
~God didn’t create us to die.
~God is love.

If, in the midst of your pain, you can focus on how God has displayed is love in your life, the lives if those you know, and the lives of those you don’t know, you’ll be able to experience the sort of peace that makes no sense based on what’s currently causing you pain. That peace won’t erase the pain, it won’t turn you into a self-centered ball of unrealistic optimism. That peace will let you know you’re loved and you’ll experience new strength to put one foot in front of the other. That peace won’t make it all make sense–some questions will never be answered. That peace will help you clarify what matters most. That peace is healing.

And healing is what love does. And Love isn’t finished with us yet.