This weekend I took time to clean the garage out. Thanks to my darling husband we were able to get it back to the way I like it! After cleaning it, we used the leaf blower to blow out the dirt and leaves that the van brings in. I then decided I could blow the leaves all together around the paved area so that I don't carry more leaves in when I drive over it. Once I got a nice line of leaves I took the rake and begin to make piles. I finished with just 6 piles and only covered a small area of the ground! One thing I noticed as I raked, not all the leaves were brought into the pile. Some were broken into smaller pieces and left on the ground. I learned in a few minutes that it was impossible to get every leaf fragment up off the ground. I was even a bit discouraged when I turned around and realized how big my front yard is and how many leaves I had to still rake. The more I raked, the more my mind begin to drift into the ways of the Lord. It never fails- anytime I am out working in the yard, or close to nature I feel closer to God! Maybe because he created it all, or maybe because I don't do it often and so it's a break from the norm. Either way I always can feel the Lord speaking to me during those times.
As I thought about those broken pieces and how I could not pick them up, I realized that they become part of the ground- they in fact create carbon dioxide. Over time, decaying leaves release carbon back into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide! So the very thing that seams dead and somewhat a pain, becomes something life giving. Okay so if you aren't following me just yet, hold fast it's coming!
There are parts of our past and our history that have just crumbled before us, we've seen pain and thought we could never get up all the broken pieces of our lives or our hearts. Then we feel defeated, as I did with my yard, and then the light comes on. Joy seeps in, you see that God can use your pain for his purpose. God will not waste your pain. Your season of defeat, depression, despair can all be used for a Kingdom purpose.
What an encouraging thought. We may not understand our pain, nor his purpose, but we can trust the process! Let those broken pieces be used for good. It is not God's desire that we have pain and suffering in our lives. Lawlessness brought that on. We live in a very broken world. Most all of us are broken vessels. Some brokenness we have came from choices we made and some from choices others made. Either way we can't change what happens to us, we can only move forward and allow God to use it for his glory.
Isaiah 43:19 ESV
Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.
Thank you Lord for doing a new thing in my life and in my heart. Thank you for making a way when there seems to be no way!
Be encouraged,
Staci
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