July 26

It's sooo hard to start over when life doesn't turn out like you expect it to. Most of us don't even realize that we have an unconscious 'template' for our life in the back of our mind- a vision of how our life is going to turn out.  It's staggering when things spiral out of control and have to be rebuilt piece by piece. Most of us have little energy for the 'regular' things in life, let alone building a whole new life. I've been close to two people (unrelated to each other) these last few weeks whose lives need to be rebuilt and it's been very hard to watch. Like watching a hurricaine hit and not being able to offer shelter. Both have been excruciating- but in different ways. One was mostly self inflicted and self destructive (alcohol which destroyed a brilliant career, a marriage and nearly ended a life) and the other the person had very little control in the situation- her husband walked out.

How do you put back the pieces? Obviously only with God's help and one piece and one day at a time. But I think it helps a little bit to look at history.....Israel's history. Who has recovered from more? Despite warning after warning, prophet after prophet they continue in their destructive ways. They went into captivity (which we'll read about soon) and returned to rebuild. Then they survived several occupations (Roman's etc), the complete destruction of Jerusalem in 70AD, multiple wars and most recently the Holocoust......but miraculously, just as predicted through the prophets we are reading- God saves a remnent and brings them back to THEIR land. And in 1947, they declared and won their independence and have been governing themselves since that time- for the first time since the kings we are reading about.

God's promises are true and can be depended upon. I love today's reading from Micah. A Branch, a ruler from Bethlahem who will struck on the cheek with a rod (in Jerusalem - 'the walled city") and His greatness will reach the ends of the earth. And this is only one of over 500 prophesies about the coming Messiah which a perfectly fullfilled in Jesus. I forget the exact statistics but it goes something like this- the chance of that happening are about the same as tossing up enough quarters to fill the state of Texas to the depth of one foot and having them all land heads up.

We can count on God's Word. It's true, it never fails. And He promises to bring us to Himself forever. I guess that's the other way that we get through life's hurricaines, is knowing that this is life is just a vapor and we will spend eternity HAPPY and with the ONE who LOVES us!!

In my story of two people's lives unraveling- only one knows the Lord. Please pray that the Lord will open his eyes and draw Him into a real and vital relationship with Him. And pray for the one who does kow the Lord that He will be especially close to her. Many people in our group are going through very challenging times- let's all pray for each other too.