The things God was teaching me were the opposite of what I had always believed. I had always thought that if I prayed hard and long enough, and with enough people joining me in prayer, God had to see things my way. As I studied the life of Naomi, I understood a deep truth—Naomi was bitter after her sons died, and she was able to admit her honest feelings. She didn’t try to cover them up by saying what people wanted to hear. Slowly, I began to learn that God wants to reveal Himself to me in my pain. I began to understand that God has to be enough—that He will help me through pain, and that He won’t always deliver me from pain. I am still learning that it’s in the pain that I can learn who He really is, that I can become like Him as I suffer.
I believe the reason I was still open to hearing what God had to say was the prayers of my grandmother. She was the mother of three alcoholics, and I know she endured many sleepless nights. But she continued to pray through all the generations. It was looking back, observing what God had done in the past that continued to carry me through these days and the days that followed.
When life is bitter, providing hope by affirming a new kind of normal is essential. Carol Kent, founder and president of Speak Up for Hope, shares fresh truths and renewed courage as she tells how her son’s incarceration changed her life. Carol’s perspective on faith in the midst of pain will provide essential tools for those who want to help others through disappointment to triumph.
--Taken from A New Kind of Normal, Carol Kent, p.102
Posted on
09/29/2010
by Adrienne Fajen
filed under