A Fresh Perspective

As of my last post, life has been returning to normal. Thom returned home just a few hours later than scheduled. We are recovering from our illnesses. The weather is slowly warming up. We have all of the goats outside now. Much of the garden froze, but it looks like some of it may come back. We'll have to wait and see. If not, we'll just replant and try again. We also lost a lot of chicks. Out of 100 we lost somewhere between 20-25. I can only attribute it to a bout of pneumonia due to the cold weather. As soon as Thom got home he and the boys set to work building an insulated box for them. With that and a heat lamp in the garage we've been able to keep the temperature in the 90's. It has been about 24 hours since the last one died and the remainder are all looking strong and healthy.

At times like these last couple of weeks when times are hard I tend to get overwhelmed by the darkness. It seems that things will never get better. A major focus so far this year has been the renewing of my mind. We are doing a scheduled Bible-in-a-year reading. When I read I've always had a tendency to think of the accounts in human terms. "What happened to these people? Did they do what was right or wrong? What was the result?" Then I realized that I've been thinking of it all wrong. It's not about us and our deeds. It's about God. It's a difficult habit to break, but I've been trying to think about it this way. "What is this telling me about God? Who is He? What did He do in this situation?" The same pattern of thought applies to all of life. It's not about what I'm going through. It's not about how I feel or even about my happiness. It's about God. Am I bringing Him glory in this situation? Am I honoring Him by how I'm handling this? Life is full of challenges--illnesses, failures, temptations, tough marriages, tough kids, financial troubles, ... We all struggle, each in our own way. It all comes down to this--will I honor God even in this darkness?

As I lay in bed, tossing and turning with dreams, this passage came to mind. I hope you are as encouraged as I was:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with Elohim and the Word was Elohim. He was in the beginning with Elohim. Everything existed through His hands, and without him, not even one thing existed of the things, which have existed. In him was life, and the life was the light of men; and the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overtake it. John 1:1-5

God has given us the truth. He has shown us what the darkness looks like from His perspective. Do we believe Him?