Yesterday when I picked Matt up from camp it was pouring. As we drove away I saw a few younger kids puddle jumping and laughing.
The beauty of innocence.
Those kids didn’t think about the rain as a hindrance, but only how they could make good of it.
The innocence of life has left the building a long time ago for many of us but there is something we can learn from those kids.
Trials, like the rain, will be a part of our lives.
Maybe, we, like the kids, need to focus on how we can harness those trials for good, in time, whatever the they may be.
This isn’t to negate the trial and the emotions that come with it but a perspective that can help us get through it. I remember in 2009, at the depths of depression, I had this thought, “once I get through this I wonder if what I’ve learned can help someone else.”
This thought gave me hope, and I’m sharing it in case it brings hope to you too.
I’m not sure what’s on your heart today, or if the weight of what others are going through is weighing on you, as it is me. If so, I invite you to join me to…
pause. breathe. pray.
May we remember that in this life there will be trials. When they come for us, or others, let’s pray for a renewed view so that instead of the trials weighing us down, they fuel us with purpose to move into action. And my prayer is that when we are able to do this, in time, that we experience an unexpected joy within, like the joy I saw in the kids playing in the rain yesterday.
With love and hope,
Shawn
“The Father of compassion and the God of all comforts, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.” - 2 Corinthians 1:3-4