The World Watches Us

"But the older I creep, the more I feel like I’m able to treat the bigger problems like the everyday emergencies. Because the world watches us. They see what they do with our pain, circle around us even, watching to see if we crumble.

Anyone can handle a split lip or a broken tooth with grace, but what about the bigger things?  Can everyone stand up under a disintegrating marriage? A death? A drawn out illness?

The fact is, Christ-followers have more at their disposal to handle pain and suffering than anyone else on earth. One might even argue that we were designed for it.

The way we face head-on, stand with feet dug-in, set our shoulders to gracefully handle the weight of suffering or pain is a louder and more effective message than anything we can ever say."

- An excerpt from Fainting at the Sight of Blood by Sarah Markley on her blog The Best Days of My Life

Proximity

"Hell is proximity without intimacy."

- Dante

Sometimes The Best Thing To Do Is Nothing

"I guess I just don't see the point of trying to fit every single tragedy into a nice, tidy little explanation. Sometimes there is grief and loss that defies any explanation whatsoever.

In the face of that kind of grief, the best kind of explanation is silence.

Isn't it more honest for us to say we don't know exactly why these things happen? 

It's inexplicable. And so is the baffling, amazing grace of God that can break through even the darkest human tragedy and shine the light of Hope for all to see."

- An excerpt from A Cruel Theology by Elizabeth Esther on her blog Kids, Twins and Laundry Bins

Are You Trying To Write Your Own Story?

"Advent calls us to stop and turn back from trying to write our own stories.  The more I try to write away the unknown, more of it seems they come out of the woodwork.

There is no peace for the unknown other than Advent:  waiting for Christ.

I forget there are just some problems that aren’t solvable by little ol’ me. I try to remedy myself with people, things, and my own good cheer.   This is the old way, where I hope in myself, my plans or my story.

God calls me to live a new way.  He wants to make His mark and to write His story instead.  As I wait for the worst to unravel, God shows up and makes sense out of the stress.

Thank God I don’t need to be stress-free, in order for Him to work in me. Jesus’ birth proves it.  Jesus came when the world was messed up, arriving small, under the most unpromising circumstances."

- An excerpt from The Hope of the Unknown by Bonnie on her blog Faith Barista

Finding Peace

"You cannot find peace by avoiding life."

- Virginia Woolf