Faith

[Guest guest]

Sue,

I've been reading everyone's encouragement posts to you with tears in my eyes.

This is truly a beautiful group of people. I wanted to tell you about a neat

exercise I did in a Bible Study once. The study was called " Experiencing God, "

and it was fabulous. It was all about focusing on your relationship with God.

Anyway, in one of the lessons, they encourage you to look back on your life and

map out some " spiritual markers. " These are times when your relationship with

God went to a new level, or you experienced Him in a way you never had before,

or times when it was just so obvious that God (not you) was in control. This was

really neat for me, yet I realized I had informally done something like it long

ago. I had one experience in particular during college, which I would be happy

to share, but it is a long story and I don't want to bore you with it. It was a

time when I completely put my situation in God's hands, and then sat back and

watched him go against all nature to carry out His will. It was so real to me.

I've had many other situations (like moving to Texas, my trip to Boston, the

timing of the psychiatrist appointment with my son's OCD, etc) where God was

very obviously in control, and that His plans were without a doubt better than

mine. But it is this circumstance in college that draws me back when I doubt. If

He was so real then, He's that real now. He'd never leave me, so I just have to

trust. It's been neat for me, because now my first reaction to bad news is no

longer crying or calling someone for support, it's saying " God is in control, "

and praying. It's a beautiful place to be. I know it will sound bizarre to many

of you, but I actually thank God FOR my illness now (not just in spite of my

illness). He's used it to bring me to the " High Places, " as they are referred to

in the book I recommended. Since I read the book, I just understand a little

better how I got there. I'm sure I'll continue to be challenged, but no one can

take my precious Jesus away from me. I, too apologize if I'm sounding preachy. I

just want to encourage you to look back on your life and draw your strength from

the times you've known God to be very real in your life. I'm praying that this

will become one of those times that you'll look to in the future...smiling at

how God worked it all out, in spite of how desperate the situation appeared.

Take care. I love you.

Shanin