God bless your broken road!

March seemed to march right through my life not caring what got trampled on...or what she took out with her. Yup...it seems a blur to me right now. The whole month was filled with sickness, pain and heartache. And not just for me. Some dear, sweet friends received devastating news regarding the health of loved ones. There's more, a lot more I could say around all of my woes, but I won't because mine are no different from yours. This is life. And it's just plain hard, sometimes. I, for one, am glad March is over. I personally am hoping for a better April. I'm just not sure that the verse I chose, or felt the Lord directed me to choose was a coincidence. Was there something He wanted to do around Romans 8:28, in my heart? Was there something that I was missing? It's easy to have the joy of the Lord when everything is going well. But what about when things aren't good at all, when in fact, they are bad? What about that? What do I do with: "And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love Him, to those who are called according to His purpose" when it looks just the opposite? When it looks like I'm getting trampled on and left in a heap, what about that? Where is my faith?

What do you do when the good is hard to see? How do you cope when bad seems to swirl all around and all but drown you trying to take you down with it? It's tough. Sometimes it's hard to keep your head above water and put one foot in front of the other, and where is God when that stubborn foot is dragging behind or pulling you down? Sometimes it takes everything you have even to utter a single prayer, other than help, Lord. Or maybe the only word that escapes is the cry for Jesus. Jesus. Jesus. And that's okay. And oh, though the pain might be great...there is comfort mixed with faith and hope and even fear, but there is something that happens when we invite Him in...to our pain, our fear, our sorrow, our confusion, our life...the real, the ugly, the dirty, the nitty-gritty hard stuff of my life, and yours.

For me it comes down to this. What is my anchor? What is grounding me? What is keeping me afloat in the midst of it all? In March, I cannot tell you how many times I said, Okay, Lord, I don't see the good here, at all, but I trust that you are going to bring good out of ________! I can't see it, but I know YOU, Your character, Your heart for your children, Your veracity...and that Your word won't be a vapor...it will accomplish Your purpose. So then, I will cling to this promise right now...like a life preserver....and I will come back to it and take hold again every time a wave tries to take me down and make me forget. You are my anchor. My shelter. My strong tower. My shield. My strength. My portion. My deliverer. My very present help. And you are the only One who can see the end from the beginning...the only One who invites beauty into the dark places and says..."Go, you don't belong here...this is MY beloved and I am doing something really great!".

I went for prayer at the end of the church service on Easter. I had been suffering from a headache for almost 3 weeks and nothing was helping, a cat scan showed nothing, nevertheless I was in pain. The woman who prayed for me had brain cancer, 16 years ago, and the Lord healed her. She spoke Ephesians 3:20 over me and I want to leave it with you as well, regardless of your circumstances, whether they look really good right now or really, really bad; He is doing a good work, He will bring good out of it and His plans for you and me are better than we ever imagined. Let's hold on to this one with everything we have. Let it be our anchor!

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us!

May God bless all of our broken roads!