Sometimes reality is terrible. I feel so sad for the people of Japan. I can not imagine having an earthquake, then..a tsunami, and now...problems with their nuclear plants. I pray for them throughout the day. I also think of the people in Libya who are fighting to be free. With very little, they fight to be free from a cruel dictator.
Even here at home, I have hard, disappointing days. Days of hearing friends that have cancer, that can't care for their own children... days of worrying about my own son's health and what his life will look like. Days of seeing friends with no job and no prospect of a job. Days of seeing fastly rising gas and food prices. Just in the last two days, a neighbor called to tell me she almost ran over my son...twice! He was told not to go to a certain street ...where it is hard to see kids playing. He went any way. Then, he was riding his bike in the dark (and no, we didn't know this. We thought he was playing basketball). Then, yesterday, my daughter ran into another child and sent him to the hospital. They both were running without paying attention and they collided. He hit his head hard onto the cement floor. He had to go the hospital to determine how bad of a concussion did he have. Ughhh.... Sometimes, it just seems way too much. That's when I have to force myself to stop looking at the earth and look to The Father. Stop looking at the temporal and look at the eternal. I have to learn again to live above my circumstances. This requires me to focus on Jesus, and not myself. Only He can empower me to face all the problems with any joy. Little by little, He lifts me up above the circumstances of my life. Resting in His presence gives me Joy that No one...or no thing can take away. He is the good shepherd and will not lose me.
Blessings,
Rachel
John 10:10-12 The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly. 11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep. 12 But a hireling, he who is not the shepherd, one who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees; and the wolf catches the sheep and scatters them.
John 10:11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
Mark 6:33-34 But many who saw them leaving recognized them and ran on foot from all the towns and got there ahead of them. 34 When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began teaching them many things
John 16:20-34 (New International Version, ©2011) 20 Very truly I tell you, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy. 21 A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come; but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world. 22 So with you: Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy. 23 In that day you will no longer ask me anything. Very truly I tell you, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. 24 Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete. 25 “Though I have been speaking figuratively, a time is coming when I will no longer use this kind of language but will tell you plainly about my Father. 26 In that day you will ask in my name. I am not saying that I will ask the Father on your behalf. 27 No, the Father himself loves you because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God. 28 I came from the Father and entered the world; now I am leaving the world and going back to the Father.”
29 Then Jesus’ disciples said, “Now you are speaking clearly and without figures of speech. 30 Now we can see that you know all things and that you do not even need to have anyone ask you questions. This makes us believe that you came from God.”
31 “Do you now believe?” Jesus replied. 32 “A time is coming and in fact has come when you will be scattered, each to your own home. You will leave me all alone. Yet I am not alone, for my Father is with me.
33 “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
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