“God brings people into deep waters, not to
drown them, but to cleanse them.”
—John Aughey
We can make anything we like out
of the adversities of life but there are two outcomes that count. When we’ve
had enough and we admit defeat, the waters roll over us and we are as good as
drowned. We know this by our previous defeats. We know that angry encounters,
when we could have showed some pluck, are pointless. But when we recognise,
with faith, that God is carrying us through this torrent, to cleanse us and make us capable for the next
thing, we endure for just another day.
This is not to deride our
depression. Our lowliness has come for a reason—such that we will learn the way
to fight. Fighting the good fight of the faith and not giving the devil a
foothold are critical tactics; mindsets that deliver us time after time, as we
persist.
Finding Room to Believe
Belief is incredibly important.
Whatever we do to retain our belief, to keep trudging, we should do. And do and
do and do.
Sometimes we need space. Sometimes
we are beleaguered and fatigued from the length of the journey. We feel crowded
and hemmed in. Frustration defines us, and the more it does the more frustrated
we become. We claw for space. And we find a way. We find room to believe.
At the very bottom of the barrel
everything seems desperate until we look up. It seems very dark at the bottom
of that barrel—but our eyes head to the light. We know it’s there. It may be a
long way to the top, but as the water level rises we rise with it, closer to
the top, and our prospects look brighter. We are finding room to believe.
When we are audacious enough to
believe we can find room to believe the door opens. And though that door may be
closed just now, we just never know what it will take to open it. When we find
that thing that opens the door it will make us laugh! How could we not know? At
that point it’s irrelevant. We are free and clear.
Triumph Needs a Travesty
Only because of the travesties of
life is there a necessity for triumph.
What sounds like a cliché is
nevertheless absolutely true. Victory has no place where there is no risk of
defeat. If not for the cross where would be the resurrection? If it wasn’t for the
sacrifice of Jesus, how would we know the depth of the Father’s love?
© 2012 S. J. Wickham.
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