SEEING A RAY OF HOPE!

Help & healing for heart & soul!

Is it possible to experience God.....in the midst of suffering? The answer is 'yes' but I've discovered that more often than not experiencing God in the midst of hardship & struggle is a process rather than a single event. One of the hardest steps toward holding on to God's loving presence is getting past the 'why' of suffering. Somewhere along the way we forget that life is full of mystery. Life is full of surprises and in a lot of instances we are not in control as to whether theses surprises are pleasant or painful. What I am able to control is my response to those surprises. I can choose to allow the anger that comes with experiencing grief & heartache to slowly eat away inside me till I am full of bitterness & resentment - at whom, I may not always know! Or I can choose to accept the truth that I may never understand (this side of heaven) the reasons for my suffering. And, then, at that very moment, choose to surrender my life and my will over to God. Its in the act of yielding, surrendering to God that allows us to slowly rebuild our lives. Rage will gradually give way to a quiet calm ..... torment will gradually give way to peace .....recovery is on its way! In a world that seeks reasons for all that happens I must be willing to arrive at the place where it's OK to admit that life is full of mystery that I may never understand!

I am slowly learning to experience a reality that the Apostle Paul shares in 2 Corinthians 4:8,9:

"We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed."

In other words, while no one is immune from receiving in this life powerful blows & jabs that staggers us at times, the good news is that whatever is thrown our way need not become 'knock-out punches'! God is there if we but turn to Him and bow our knee to Him!

Is it possible to ever again experience peace ...in the midst of crushed hopes or dreams? At the time, it certainly appears that the answer is an emphatic NO! All living seems to stop ... the body seems to be 'frozen'.....the 'inner circuit breaker' tripped to the 'off' position! All systems are in the 'shut-down' stage. Slowly, the struggle to make peace with reality starts. At first, the progress is ever so slow but gradually the speed towards finding the serenity of acceptance picks up.

Letting go of that which meant so much yesterday is difficult for initially it feels that we are simply throwing in the towel. However, we must remind ourselves that letting go does not mean that we have to convince ourselves that what we have lost wasn't important! We must be courageous enough to admit to the truth that despite the pain we will feel, those hopes & dreams were important!

I have used the 'empty chair' therapy to help 100's of people to move from loss to life! But before beginning the therapy, we remind ourselves of the words of Jesus: "And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." Or, "I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you." Jesus is ever present even when our faith is weak! I encourage people to believe that His hand is, indeed, in our hand. Then I will place on that empty chair that person which they have lost or that hope or that dream that may have been crushed. Then we encourage the grieving person to start talking ... usually it is slow at first but gradually they begin to talk and talk and talk ... we talk about the good times .. the hopes and dreams we shared. We laugh .. we cry ... we become silent ... then we talk some more. We may even pray. As often as is necessary, we repeat this scenario over as many days as necessary. Though the pain doesn't evaporate immediately, the sting becomes less & less. Then slowly we begin making peace with reality and gradually the disturbed soul becomes quieted & still. The resistance to acceptance becomes less and the journey of life resumes. At some point we come to the realization that, though we had wondered where the Heavenly Father had been when the tears fell and the heart ached, He had always been there! Thank you, Jesus, for being ever present!