Dark Tunnels (Bright Lights)

I would like to say that God does bring us to the end of what, at the time, seems like a long dark tunnel.

There is light at the end for those who persevere.

There is a reason for hope through whatever you're going through, or wherever you're at.
I've found that God is faithful- and sometimes he uses hard times to help us later on down the line-
sometimes our unique experiences lend to how we are able to influence others and situations later-
through adversity and fire, we are tempered into fine steel- and soft china.

I think we need to learn a lesson or two about God.
That He does no best.
That He doesnt owe us anything.
That we are not owed anything.
We need to remember God is good.
Very good.

Job is one of the oldest stories in the Bible- it's a tough, challenging read- because it goes against so many preconceptions we have grown up with- like so many cute, cuddly stuffed animals from our sheltered childhoods.
Hardship comes and goes, God is God. And is perfectly capable in doing whatever He pleases...

but I think the great secret of God's character- which is glimpsed all throughout the Old Testament, other cultures and through people, who are made in His likeness, is that God is love- and only intends the best for us. He knows our deepest secrets and greatest joys. He alone knows what completes us- and knows what sort of creatures we are.

... And in knowing every last iota about who you are...

Loves you.

and in fact, we only know how to really love, because we first knew that sort of love. Like a reflection begging to be imitated- until it takes on a life of it's own.

and in the end, and all the way through-

that was all we ever needed-

was love.

the ability to know we are loved- not because of anything we do- or not do-
I think we forget we are dealing with something much deeper, more ancient, and simpler-
We are loved- because God is who He is.

All sanity and goodness and rightness begins with Him- and is in fact a reflection of Him, at work,
here
now
today.

Through people
situations
events

and words.

and we need to eat those words.

we need to take all those encounters of the Divine Love
and internalize them so completely
until we no longer know where He begins and we end-
until we are consummated as one through love, by love, for love.
Until we no longer remain as our old selves-
but are forged anew-
into something better- more ancient, and far simpler,
than we insist upon being now.

Through hardships- we are continually being shaped, little by little- into that new person-
ideally, less of us remains, because Love is being internalized in us- because through each hardship we know God that much more- through Life, we would know love.

and in knowing Love,
would be made complete at long last.

-just something to think about.


Like what you read? Join in with your own insights, stories and art- send them to ryanpfreeman1@aol.com. Through how you've seen God move, we can change people through love. For more, listen to SpeakEasy radio, every Saturday night at 6pm MST on KKIM. Listen live at http://mykkim.com. Thanks and God bless -Ryan