ON REMAINING OPTIMISTIC

It's been one of those weeks (for everyone) where the news headlines that flash across the screen seem like blow after blow.  Bad news is never enjoyable, but this week it has just kept coming.  And I think about the lives that hang in the balance and the lives that have been destroyed, this week alone.  Those are heavy thoughts.

There are heavy thoughts in my own life as well.  I am now aware, and my eyes are opened to certain circumstances that seem deplorable and hard to fathom so close by.  My heart is tied into another family very deeply - one that I have not yet even met.  Harsh realities have scraped against my heart and banged around my head all week, and I feel bruised on the inside.

Having spent so much of my life seeking fun and looking for adventure, some of these things are hard to swallow.  It goes against my grain.

But I can see now that my grain runs the wrong direction.

It runs for me and for what I think will make me happy and comfortable.  It looks out for my best interests.  Against my own grain is good, because it usually leads to the Lord.  It follows his heart and not my own.  Slowly, I am learning to go against my grain.



Yesterday, we did get a breath of fresh air in an email of good news - hopeful news.  It is truly astounding to see God at work and be in awe of the way he is in the details.  Watching this story unfold is teaching me to be optimistic, even when things look ugly.  There is always hope.

This verse encouraged my heart yesterday:

Romans 12:12
Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.

This week I choose to hope in the Lord.  I am so thankful to be able to see him at work, and I look forward in eager anticipation to what he will do.