Teachable Troubles, Comforting Challenges

July 6, 2009

I’ve received some incredible emails this past week. I’ve read about the dazzling courage of a young gay youth who came out in the Bible Belt of our country to his conservative Christian parents and had the compassion and maturity to give them time to come around…and with open and loving hearts they did. I’ve had a couple exchanges with a woman who struggles with the basic questions of reconciling her faith and sexuality whose heart for God and desire to please her Savior is about as tender as anything I’ve ever read. And then there’s the  conservative mom who wrote to a stranger who identifies as a Christian and lesbian with concerns about her possibly gay daughter. She loves her daughter and the person she is even while she’s confused and concerned about what all this might mean.

Those are just three of the emails that arrived this week and as is always the case what I received personally in those emails is far more than I was able to give back in return. Courage. Determination. Love. Passionate desire to please God. Hunger to be whole and at peace. Faithfulness in the midst of doubt. Resilience in painful circumstances. Every time I receive letters such as these I’m reminded again in such a tangible way that our lives don’t speak the loudest when we think we have it all together but when we’re frayed at the edges and not sure what tomorrow will bring and how we’ll come out the other side or even if we will and yet we refuse to let go of our grip on life, on God, and on hope that tomorrow may hold more grace and understanding that we possess in today.

Whatever is going on in your life, how ever many difficulties you’re facing, whatever hurt you’re enduring, whatever questions, doubts, fears or uncertainties are swirling around you, your life is speaking. That you are overwhelmed but not overcome is a powerful witness to others, not only of the nature of your character but of the presence of God’s Spirit within you. You’re touching lives. You might never know who, you might never know how deeply, but God is using you today. You are a worthy vessel and you don’t need to wait until the end of your life to hear God say, “This is my child in whom I am well pleased.” You are and God is. Today.

The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness. – Zephaniah 3:17

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.  – 2 Corinthians 2:3-4

Posted in Grace Meditations