It has been a long week, but still a blessing. God is good (all the time). Even when we are immersed in frustration, indecision and worry, the truth remains with us. The things that haunt us do so for a reason – so that we see them more clearly – so that we examine our own feelings, motives, and choices.

I believe that if we find ourselves in the same place time and again, there’s a reason. We need to pay attention. We are brought back there so that we can appreciate the lesson. Otherwise, we are much like a person lost in the woods….led by nothing more than the desire to be saved. Without direction (the compass of the soul), we wander again and again to the same sweet tree.

What I know. Adversity doesn’t build character; it reveals it. When we are faced with something we’d rather not, or we get something other than what we wanted, it becomes a point of strengthening – perhaps even a clarification of who we are (as opposed to who we wish to be or claim to be). It offers us a deeper understanding of what matters, what doesn’t, and all the mess that can get in between.

But sometimes (sweetly), the mess is a part of the blessing.

“The barn’s burned down; now I can see the moon.”

Within the devastation known as ruin, we find hope such that a clean slate doesn’t appear quite so empty. We look up, and for a moment, even the stars surprise us. The path glows brighter in the darkness.

beyond the night
a wiser sun
than e’er the dark
could claim
beyond the prayer
a blessing
we became
a song we knew
before the tunes
were found
in sweet refrain
beyond the light
eternal burns
our flame

. . .