Healing

The phrase Mourning into Dancing came to me more than ten years ago at what must have been the lowest point in my life. I was completely broken, my whole world had just blown apart. It has been the phrase that signifies God's promise to me: I will heal. I will restore. I will bring joy. I will replace those tears with laughter once again. Through this healing process, I have had the opportunity to learn more of who God is and also more about who I am.

So many times I have been tempted to place all of my focus on 'me'. My pain. My struggle. My healing. While I believe there is a time for focusing inward and working on the issues, I am convinced that healing comes in greater measure when we look beyond ourselves.

Listen to the words of Isaiah 58:
6 Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke?7 Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter - when you see the naked, to clothe him, and not turn away from your own flesh and blood?8 Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard.9 Then you will call, and the LORD will answer; you will cry for help, and He will say: Here am I. "If you do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger and malicious talk,10 and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday.11 The LORD will guide you always; He will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.

YOUR HEALING WILL QUICKLY APPEAR.

This is why on this blog you sometimes find stories that go beyond myself. Stories of the poor, the widow and the orphan - places I've found myself over the years, looking past my own brokenness and standing in the middle of someone else's pain. This is where my heart is. Positioned in the midst of broken humanity - whether it is in a developing country or downtown. My prayer is that in the middle of life's busy-ness, God will arrest my attention to see the world around me through His eyes.