Ob la di, ob la da…

On a personal note – two posts recently obliquely referenced personal issues.  It’s nothing I’m willing to get into the details of on the intarweb, but our family is going through some serious troubles right now.  To break out the churchspeak, a perfect solution isn’t available “in the natural” but that’s not to say God won’t come up with something better in the long run.  He’s been known to do that sort of thing.  Right now we’re just trying to figure out how to go with the flow; it seems clear this is a long-term situation and our old life is gone forever.  We are very blessed to have the support of our church.  Our pastor came over last night to counsel and pray with us.  Friends we didn’t even know we had have stepped up to help in ways we could not have imagined.  God is working in ways both big and small to get us through it, even to the smallest details.  For example, when our car broke down on the way to the emergency room yesterday, the friend we called for help was nearby.  He took us to the ER, came back for us later to give us a ride home, and gave – not lent – us the money to have the car towed back to our house. I’m prone to focus on the negative, that the car broke down at all, instead of the fact that God bookended that problem with his mercy and help.

The verses I listed in the “Snoopy dance” post when I was delighted at a certain turn of events – what I thought was the beginning of the end of this situation, and all downhill from here – still applied when I was crushed by another turn, and realized that it was the end of the beginning, and it’s all uphill from here.  When I wrote that second post, I didn’t have any hope; I was focusing entirely on the problem from a “natural” perspective because it was a replay of the events that led to the death of my first husband and I was lost then.  But friends, and our pastor, reminded me of the truth – that God is much bigger than this problem, that He loves us, and that I can rely on Him to fulfill the promises He’s made.

Then shall the young women rejoice in the dance, and the young men and the old shall be merry. I will turn their mourning into joy; I will comfort them, and give them gladness for sorrow.
(Jeremiah 31:13)