God’s Healing for Life’s Losses:
How to Find Hope When You’re Hurting
Post 33: See in This Some Higher Plan
How to Find Hope When You’re Hurting
Post 33: See in This Some Higher Plan
Without Christ and a Christian perspective, we despair. We doubt. We give up any hope of ever making life work, of ever figuring out the mystery of life, of ever completing the puzzle. We trudge on in doubt, despair, and darkness.
Weaving: Grace Eyes
So what’s weaving? Weaving is entrusting myself to God’s larger purposes, good plans, and eternal perspective. It’s seeing life with spiritual eyes instead of eyeballs only. It’s looking at suffering, not with rose colored glasses, but with faith eyes, with Cross-eyes, with 20/20 spiritual vision.
When Terri returned for her next appointment, I asked her what made the difference in her life, what helped her to turn the corner. She said, “two things, no, two people. Joseph and the Bishop.” Joseph we’ll talk about in a minute. The Bishop we’ll talk about now.
Another Story Must Begin
I had asked Terri to watch Les Mis. There’s a classic scene where the star of the story, Jean val Jean, a paroled prisoner, takes advantage of the Bishop of Digne. Stealing from him, val Jean is captured by the French police. They return him to the Bishop, fully expecting the Bishop to implicate val Jean which would lead to a return to prison without hope for parole.
To the shock of everyone involved, the Bishop says, “But my brother, you forgot these,” and hands him silver candlesticks. The police release val Jean and leave. Then the Bishop says, “by the witness and the martyrs, by the passion and the blood, I have bought your soul for God, now become an honest man, see in this some higher plan.” Val Jean, floored by grace, changed by grace, concludes the scene by singing, “another story must begin.”
Terri, recounting this to me, said, “Now everything that happens to me, I’m looking for God’s higher plan. I’m setting my thoughts on things above—always wondering what God might be up to in this. For me, another story must begin—God’s story that doesn’t obliterate my painful story, but that gives it meaning.”
Weaving in Weaving
Where do we find weaving woven into the fabric of Scripture? That’s our topic for tomorrow.
Weaving: Grace Eyes
So what’s weaving? Weaving is entrusting myself to God’s larger purposes, good plans, and eternal perspective. It’s seeing life with spiritual eyes instead of eyeballs only. It’s looking at suffering, not with rose colored glasses, but with faith eyes, with Cross-eyes, with 20/20 spiritual vision.
When Terri returned for her next appointment, I asked her what made the difference in her life, what helped her to turn the corner. She said, “two things, no, two people. Joseph and the Bishop.” Joseph we’ll talk about in a minute. The Bishop we’ll talk about now.
Another Story Must Begin
I had asked Terri to watch Les Mis. There’s a classic scene where the star of the story, Jean val Jean, a paroled prisoner, takes advantage of the Bishop of Digne. Stealing from him, val Jean is captured by the French police. They return him to the Bishop, fully expecting the Bishop to implicate val Jean which would lead to a return to prison without hope for parole.
To the shock of everyone involved, the Bishop says, “But my brother, you forgot these,” and hands him silver candlesticks. The police release val Jean and leave. Then the Bishop says, “by the witness and the martyrs, by the passion and the blood, I have bought your soul for God, now become an honest man, see in this some higher plan.” Val Jean, floored by grace, changed by grace, concludes the scene by singing, “another story must begin.”
Terri, recounting this to me, said, “Now everything that happens to me, I’m looking for God’s higher plan. I’m setting my thoughts on things above—always wondering what God might be up to in this. For me, another story must begin—God’s story that doesn’t obliterate my painful story, but that gives it meaning.”
Weaving in Weaving
Where do we find weaving woven into the fabric of Scripture? That’s our topic for tomorrow.
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