Our been there moments have the potential to comfort others.
When I got called in yesterday to sub, I had no idea why. It turned out that it was for a teacher who had to have her dog put to sleep that morning. As I shared in a post last week, I recently went through that myself. When she arrived at noon, we talked about it a few minutes and shared stories. I hugged her and offered her some comfort that could really only come from someone who had “been there.”
Later, in the car rider line, I was talking to a friend of mine who had a serious struggle last year resulting from the betrayal of a really good friend of hers. That same friend had brought her into the Christian faith, so the betrayal hurt her very deeply. She and I have discussed many times why God didn’t work it out differently. I always assured her that He does have a plan and His own timing even when we can’t understand.
Well, it turns out that she had coffee with another friend of hers a couple of days ago who shared some things that were going on in her own life and in one of her relationships and my friend got it. She said it was like a light bulb moment, when she realized that the only way that she was able to help this friend was because she had “been there,” herself.
The bad stuff from her past, all of the pain, suddenly made sense. She said she felt an amazing sense of peace and relief.
When we surrender our stuff to God, He can do amazing things with it. When I say stuff, I mean pain, betrayals, disappointments, failures and heartache. He can use those things and create something beautiful to help others along in their journey. It doesn’t matter whether or not we can see it; He can.
But, we shouldn’t limit ourselves or Him to the negative stuff either. He can also use our successes, strong healthy relationships, and joy too. His power is limitless. He wants everything in our hearts, good and bad and all He wants from us is to give it to Him and to trust.
Wherever we are right now, whatever we are going through, we never walk alone. He can redeem any situation and He always wants to hold our hand on the journey. The question is, are we willing to reach for His?
Have an awesome day!
Wendy 🙂