Skip to main content

a greater plan

Then some Jews came from Antioch and Iconium and won the crowd over. They stoned Paul and dragged him outside the city, thinking he was dead. But after the disciples had gathered around him, he got up and went back into the city. The next day he and Barnabas left for Derbe.    Acts 14:19-20
Can you imagine what it took for Paul to get up and go back into that city?  The very city where the people who had stoned him within inches of his life, lived?
Courage is defined online at merriam-webster.com as "the ability to do something that you know is difficult or dangerous."
When Googled, courage is said to be "strength in the face of pain or grief."
Life often presents hardships, failures, vulnerabilities...
You put yourself out there and wham!  Out of the blue something hits you that you never saw coming.
Perhaps you saw it coming and you could not or did not swerve out of its way.
Or, just maybe, you opened yourself up to a new idea or tried something new and it feels now that people are just watching and waiting for you to trip up or fall flat.
There are going to be those around us that hurt us.
Questions we have go unanswered.
Mysteries of all the "whys" in life are going to remain unsolved this side of heaven.
It takes courage to pull ourselves up by our boot straps an go back to walking again.
But, we will and we do.
There is a greater plan than we can see or understand.
God knows it.
If we know Him, we can trust His plan.
I am reminded of another verse, Acts 4:13...
When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.
Our courage to get back up and to keep on going is rooted in and established by our relationship with the One who gave us this life to live in the first place.
Jesus gives even the most ordinary an extraordinary life to live.
Whether we have it all together or not doesn't matter so much because He's got this...He has me...right where He wants.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

L.E.N.S. photo challenge: learning spaces

 Join in on the photo challenge fun at Home Is Where You Start From . 

#TransformationTuesday

"But God has surely listened and has heard my prayer."  Psalm 66:19 As one who has struggled with weight all of my life, seeing the ups and downs in jean sizes became my reality.  I would lose some pounds only to face a stressor in life and see them return and bring friends along for the ride.  I spent years believing lies, yet secretly hoping for a better reality.  Lies that I am not capable of overcoming my sweet tooth and that I am just not the workout type, topped the list.  I have never really lacked self esteem or self confidence; I know who I am.  However, I know from personal experience, others define me by what they first see.  Having been a plus-size lady for years, I was treated differently, intentionally or not, when I dropped pounds. My health journey to where I am today began back in 2010. It is amazing that things do not happen accidentally, even if they seem to in the beginning. Actually, as the pieces of my story have come together, this story begins w

anchored

My word for 2018.  Anchored. To keep from drifting. Representative of stability and strength. Connected. Held.  Grounded.  Positioned.  Fixed. Movable. Small, yet, essential part of a bigger entity. It is a standard by which to live; a goal for which to strive. Anchored.