Month: September 2017

The pain drags you into a black hole of despair. It seems like there is no escape, that life will never be good ever again. It sucks the life out of you, drains you of energy. You can’t even find the strength to get out of bed any more. There’s no point anyway. God where are you? Are you punishing me for something? What have I done to deserve this?

The pain can come from many things. Sickness of the body, sickness of the mind, a friend who has betrayed you, a spouse that has abused you, even a child who defies you and refuses to make decisions that will bring her the bright future you want for her. The financial pain of not having the money for the necessities of life for you and your dependants.

Pain is inescapable in this world. We all experience it in one way or another. What is the point of it? Are we simply put here to feel pain throughout our days and then go to the grave in misery? Or is there a greater purpose? Can beauty come out of pain?

In this picture there are two very different pieces of wood. The top one is a cabinet door which I am refinishing for a client. It is made from #1 grade maple. From a tree which had ideal growing conditions. There are no knots or flaws. It is perfect.

The bottom piece is going to be a new coffee bar for my house. It is made from a piece of Douglass fir which grew under harsh conditions in the Canadian Rockies. It is full of knots and imperfections, some of which I have inlaid turquoise. Which piece is more beautiful? I think the bottom one.

God doesn’t bring us pain. Pain is the result of living in the system of sin we are all born into. We were made to be dependant on God, living in the flow of perfect love. When we resist that flow of love, when we do not receive God’s love, when we do not love others with our actions, we bring pain on ourselves an those around us.

God is a craftsman, a true artist who is able to take imperfect lives, wounded and broken from pain and make them beautiful. I’m learning to trust God more and more as I see the results of painful things in my life. I can start to see the artwork He is creating with it. I am able to understand and help others who are going through the hard things I’ve experienced. There is still some pain which I do not yet see how it will be made beautiful, but I trust the divine artist that some day He will indeed turn my pain into beauty. Thank you Jesus!

When I was born I was given a sailboat. My sailboat was securely anchored in a little harbor . While I spent all my time on this boat, it always remained firmly anchored. I was told that it was to dangerous to leave. There were so many wrong directions to take, so many storms that could sink me, so many ways to get lost. Better to stay anchored in my little harbour. I felt safe there in my little sailboat. For a long time that was enough. I learned from the other sailors in my harbor to work hard to keep my sailboat looking its best. We all spent our time shining up the outside of those boats. Sometimes we would be so desperate to have a shiny boat that we would toss our mess on to someone else’s boat. Most times we would just take the mess below deck and shove it in a corner since it was important that the harbor stayed clean as well. We wanted it to be attractive to those sailors out in the ocean so they would also want to come stay in the harbor. After awhile it started to get real messy inside my sailboat, it was harder to live in it. I began to listen to some of the sailors who came and stopped in our harbor. I heard stories of beautiful lands and incredible journeys. I saw sailors full of joy. Was that even possible? They should have been stressed and discontented away from our safe haven. But I could not deny the joy and the longing which stirred in my own soul to see the things that they talked about for myself. Some in my harbor cautioned me to never listen to those sailors, they could lead me to lose my safety. Some tried to stop sailors from coming into the harbor, but I raised my anchor just a little so I could be at the edge of the open ocean. From there I continued to listen to the sailors and their tales. I especially listened to the ones who told of an ocean vast with unexplored paradise, of the feeling of wind in the sails, and a wide open horizon in all directions. My conversations with the ocean goers had changed, no longer was I trying to convince them to stay in the harbor. My fellow harborites did not like this. They said, you must tell the ocean goers that they will be killed, that they can only be safe in the harbor. But finally, I worked up the courage to say that I thought everyone was safe, that the ocean was on our side. The harbormasters said that I must not say this to the other harborites or everyone would leave and be dashed on the rocks, or sink. I knew they were wrong and I knew I wanted the joy that I saw in the ocean goers, so I pulled up my anchor and let my sailboat drift into the ocean. But I didn’t know how to really sail, except from watching the ocean goers. Pretty soon I was a long way from anything familiar, adrift in a vast ocean of grace. The