Yet: A letter for the hurting.

"The soul would have no rainbow if the eyes had no tears."

(Native American Proverb)

Dear hurting ones,

These have been days that seemed to be created simply for asking the Whys.  Why must we hurt? 
Why do people suffer?
Why do injustices sometimes prevail?
Why does this world have such ugliness?
Why can't we hide away from the pain?

WHY IS THE WORLD THIS WAY?

I cannot write to answer these questions. Too much. 
I can write to process. I can write to (hopefully) help ease that ache in your heart and mine. I can try my best. I must try my best. Compelled.

Yesterday. Phew. 

Yesterday seemed to be a day wrapped in the revealing of intense pain and grief. Loss of life. Of very young children near my town. Of a young man in my town. Of a preteen girl in my oldest sister's town.

2 deaths by accident. 
1 death by a natural but sudden cause. 
And 1 death by evil. 

It has been enough to capture my heart and squeeze it tight. Very tight. 

There is much, much ugliness and evil in this world. Can we be surprised? 

Wise words from my friend, who has been in the middle of this very ugliness:

"When something pure evil happens in this world, 
people begin to grasp to things to help them comprehend and deal. 
They grasp onto things like blame...

Some evil is so dark it cannot be comprehended and made sense of. 

And instead of grasping onto blame, we need to grasp hold of each other in love."

(Christina Flood)

And there have been absolutely beautiful ways of "holding onto each other in love"... 

• wearing pink, wearing purple to remember those small girls who have been taken from this earth...
• wearing blue to support a young teenager who will likely struggle with heavy questions of "what if"...
• wearing Hawkeye or Bears clothes to grieve at a funeral service, the favorite teams of a young man who suddenly is no longer with his family, friends, community...
• turning on your porch lights this weekend, to honor the life of a young girl who lost her life in an unimaginable way...

I have been struggling deep within as I desire to again be reminded of those age-old answers of the reasons God allows, permits suffering. To be reassured. 

And then last night, while in dinner preparations, I became very.angry. 
In addition to the taxing, emotional, rocking questions of the day's suffering, I became angry at the enormous injustice that had taken place, that had an indirect impacted on my family. 

I saw blame. I saw unfairness. I tried to stifle the foul from spilling from my mouth. #$@&! (Yes, even me. Ashamed.)

I finally asked my husband as he stood next to me, "WHAT can I do with this anger? All this bad news? I can't deny it. That would be Pollyanna and a lie. What do I do with it?!" 

An understanding man, he reminded me of truths we have been hearing this week, from a message series on the radio. About pain, about this broken world. I want to share some of what we've listened to with you...

Some of those thoughts from Chip Ingram:

"The key to moving through a broken world experience: 

Ask God a pivotal question. Ask WHAT instead of WHY.

What do you want me to learn?

What do you want to do in me?

What do you want to do through me?

When we suffer, the world watches you respond: Like, "I can't imagine how (you) made it through that situation with that attitude, apart from a real God, who is really alive."

Those who have been hurt deeply tend to love deeply. 

Those who have suffered deeply, those who have been wounded deeply: 

it produces something in you that you didn't have, that causes you to reach out and care in way that you never did before.

How we endure hardship shows the world how real God is."

(Chip Ingram,

There is an incredibly relevant message series you can listen to online for free: http://livingontheedge.org/series/rebuilding-your-broken-world/daily-radio)

The reality we face: there WILL be pain and hardship on in this world. No doubt. But how do we not become consumed with despair, with depression, with giving up?

"Yet I call this to mind, and therefore I have hope:

Because of the Lord's faithful love, we do not perish.

For his mercies never end. 

They are new every morning;

great is Your faithfulness.

I say: The Lord is my portion, therefore I will put my hope in Him."

Lamentations 3:21-24

Yet.

That is the word that makes ALL the difference. 

What do I do when I am overwhelmed? 

Yet this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope. 

Key to remember: HIS PROMISES.

Why am I not consumed? 

Because of the Lord's great love. 

HE is what gets me through.

How do I know God will keep loving me? 

His compassions never fail.

When will God's love show up? 

When it is needed each.new.day. 

(Like manna)

There will be a new way He expresses it to us EACH day. 

LOOK. 

FOR. 

IT.

(notes from a message by Pastor Dave MacKinnon, 
Westchester Evangelical Free Church,

December 30, 2012)

"Yet I will certainly bring health and healing to it and will indeed heal them. 

I will let them experience the abundance of peace and truth... 

They will tremble with awe because of 

all the good and all the peace I will bring about for them."

(Jeremiah 33:6,9b)

Yet.

Yet, with all the ugliness, there continues to be sources of strength out there, ready and willing to remind us of those essentials of life. What we may lose sight of in the stress, the anxiety, the busyness, the blur, the pain.
Music. Relationship. Nature. Hobbies. Solitude. FAITH. HOPE.

Just one avenue of blessing for me? Choosing just a couple of those countless blogs that overflow with words of blessing, words of encouragement, words that urge us to remember... our placement of priorities, our value as individuals, our need for grace and peace, the benefit of living in the moment, of recognizing and grabbing hold of the joy.

Please:

Keep on searching. Keep on processing.

(Me? I process by just this: typing out, writing out words. Writing down makes the intangible somewhat touchable.)

Are you like me? 

Then write.

Does it help to share aloud, to expose those thoughts, to unravel the knots, the hurts, the emotion?

Then talk.

Does it help to run, to exert?

Then run. (Like my oldest sister, get out that jogging stroller with your newborn baby and run.)

Just PLEASE give yourself grace and give yourself healthy ways to process this journey, these questions, those struggles. To somehow feel a thread of control, in this world that spins crazy.

Oh, I feel such a burden for you, fellow suffering one.

"Did I not weep for him, whose day was hard? 
Was my soul not grieved for the needy?"

(Job 30:25)

"I'm convinced that the greatest act of love 
we can ever perform for another person 
is to tell them about God's love for them in Christ."

(Billy Graham)

So the words in this picture below are what make my heart beat strong, what gives me passion to wake up each morning. Like a New Year's Resolution... 

Blessings, dear ones, as we are on this up-and-down-and-up-again journey together,
Elizabeth


P.S. Just a few more treasured gems with truth on suffering, struggling:

"The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, 

known suffering, known struggle, known loss, 

and have found their way out of its depths. 

These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity, and an understanding of life 

that fills them with compassion, gentleness, and a deep loving concern. 

Beautiful people do not just happen." 

(Elisabeth Kübler-Ross)

"I don't look at happiness as being a great goal.

A sense of peace, definitely,

but it's like the seasons.

I think we're meant to have a spring, summer, autumn and winter.

I'm not looking for a perpetual summer, 

because that would be a flat line."

(Joely Richardson, after the sudden death of her sister, Natasha Richardson)

Struggling and joy are not chronological. 
But concurrent, fluid moments. 

"STRUGGLING CAN DEEPEN JOY."

(Ann Voskamp)