Thursday, January 12, 2012

Dearest God,

You really do know what is best for us, don't you?  While we stare down at a single angle, you know all the angles.  When you promote our healing, you know what it will mean in the long run.  You know what it will take to make the healing process begin.  You give us a vision and tools.  If we are open to your leading, you will even give us the desire to be transformed.

So many times we have watched this very process take place in our covenant group.  One of us will share an ongoing struggle, something perhaps we have wrestled with again and again.  With a stubborn refusal or at the least a resistance, we keep circling in our own puddles, not realizing there is another way out, another way home, or another way to return joy to our lives.  And then you nudge us, gently shaking us until suddenly we are enabled to see from a different perspective.  Even a small shift can dramatically change our picture.

This morning as I sit here writing, I am remembering times when you altered my vision.  For no reason other than love, you have moved me, shaken me loose from my firm grip on fear, and challenged my belligerent ways to soften a place at the edge of my soul.  There you spoke to me, like a loving parent to a recalcitrant child, and in the process opened me to the first step of healing change. 

I haven't always appreciated your intent to heal me.  Nor have I always embraced your idea of conversion.  Yet, as I trusted you more and more, I have learned that your way is always the right way, the better way, and even the good way.

With all
the power
to destroy us
because of our
poor attitudes
and bad behavior,
your grace
still wins out
and your love
is meted out
to your
wayward children.
As one
of those children,
I give you thanks.

Love, Andrea