Joy and Light

It never fails just when my plans for the week seem to be rolling along, a bump occurs in the road. The respiratory crud has attacked two of my children so I am playing nurse-mom today. This does not go over well with work when I have to call in but unfortunately we have no options without family nearby to help out. So, I'll get a few things done around the house that would have been put on hold til tomorrow had I gone in to work today. Good for that, bad for the bank account. That's okay though, God knew ahead of time how today would go and we will continue to trust Him for provision. I was reading today in my quiet time about when Peter, James and John went up to a mountain with Jesus. They were able to see Him in His glorious form, and conversing with Moses and Elijah--wow! I am amazed every time I have read this account and wonder what it must have been like for them to be there, experiencing something so incredible. Yes, they were afraid, and I am sure they must have been absolutely speechless. As I read further I was also amazed to see them still not comprehending Jesus' purpose on this earth. They still could not wrap their brains around the plan for His life, to die and rise again, that He truly was the Son of God. I keep coming back to the reality that our human nature, our limited understanding of all things spiritual keep us from truly comprehending it all. We are striving all our lives to be more like Christ, but we will never reach completeness til we are in the eternal Kingdom with Him and the Father. This is where my faith comes in. We are told in Scripture that faith is believing in something unseen, something we cannot touch, smell, taste, hear or see. We know in our hearts because at some point the Holy Spirit moved us to choose a lasting relationship with Jesus Christ and boom!--faith is born. It is what keeps us going daily, knowing we have so much more to live for beyond our days on this earth and we want everyone we know to have that so we share it with them. Our faith goes before us, in how we live, everything we do and say is a reflection of who we truly are deep inside. Who are we if our faith is taken away? Who were you before you found God? I have a unique testimony in that I was raised in the church, the daughter of a pastor, so in my journey I found Christ at a very young age. I had my struggles along the way, but I never lost sight of my foundation. I know God has always been there, that regardless of the fluctuations in my faith walk, He has not moved or changed. Funny how our human nature plays tricks on us and we are convinced God is so far away, has somehow forgotten us or abandoned us. The truth is we are the ones who forget, abandon God. We choose to wallow in our struggles, flop around in the muddy mire of our human existence rather than climbing out of it to plant our feet firmly on the solid ground God has promised us. He never said it would be easy and He has never promised us that life will be a breeze. He does promise that we will not have to endure anything we can't handle, He will provide even through the lives of other Christ followers we know and love, and we will be shaped by experiences to be stronger, wiser and better for the journey ahead. That is faith building right there.