The world has stilled.

Our once overstuffed calendars now have square after empty square of whitespace. Stores are shuttered, workplaces and school rooms have moved into homes, parks are unused except for a few scattered dog walkers.

We no longer have the rush of early mornings out the door, afternoon carpools and playdates, evening extracurriculars and weekend plans. Sunday services happen whenever we hit play on our laptops while we lounge on pillows and couches in the living room.

Scientists who record seismic activity have noted a huge drop in vibrations caused by humans and a world so quiet, unnoticed wildlife sounds have returned to cities.

Our world has been forced to be still.

I wonder if we could say the same for our emotions?

Dealing with massive change, navigating the unexpected and facing unknowns ahead have left us stressed and anxious.

We’re reeling from disappointment and grief as well: missing once-in-a-lifetime graduations, trips and weddings and separated from loved ones and community.

It’s in this kind of uncertainty, upheaval and unrest, that Psalm 46:10 tells us to “Be still and know that I am God.”

[Read more…]

Sitting across the table over her pancakes and coffee and my quiche and water, I listened as she spilled out the events of her last few months.

On a normal day in the ordinary of life, she’d uncovered something odd. She pulled at one thread and then another and now found herself holding the remains of her unraveled life.

Her trust and love had been sabotaged by deceit and infidelity.

How in the world do you move forward with the frayed remnants of life as it was, much less help children walk through their own tangled emotions?

I had no solutions. We prayed and put it all before God, but her legitimate fear left me wondering how this would end.

Against the overwhelm of circumstances, parenting struggles, thin finances, a new diagnosis, we often see no way out. We are helpless and we’re left wondering how it will end.

But God.

See, God doesn’t just redeem us for himself. He redeems our stories for himself.

And what the enemy means for evil — to split our faith and families wide open – God uses for good.

Joseph declared this. He’d been thrown into a pit; sold as a slave; taken from everything he knew and loved; separated from family for decades; wrongly accused despite his honesty, hard work and integrity; wrongly imprisoned; and left in prison despite his hard work and innocence.

Through all of it, Joseph could say that his brothers “intended to harm [him], but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.”

This didn’t dawn on Joseph once he saw the ending. This was a guiding principle – that God no matter the circumstances, God holds the ending.

When we are God’s, Satan never triumphs. While he may press, though people may disappoint, though life as we know it can unravel, they don’t get the final say!

There is always, always, always a but God.

[Read more…]