Tested By Fire

I've been rather distracted lately. Situations beyond my control have nicked at my sanity to the point where I feel broken. It's hard to see something you love literally burn before your eyes. It's even harder when you know people are losing nearly all their worldly possessions - homes, pictures, physical remnants of their family history, the things that tie you to your history. And worse, actual loved ones.

My beloved state of Texas is truly going up in flames. And there is nothing I can do to stop it. This is personal for me because family and friends are being affected by these fires. And it truly hurts my heart to see what people are going through.

Wednesday was a particularly hard day for me. I'd been wrapped up in watching everything on the news, or on the Internet, when something in me snapped. Like twisting an ankle when you fall, it happened that quickly. My heart was broken and I needed a lifeline. So, I called a friend. And it was during that call that I realized I was exactly where God wanted me at that moment in time - because in my brokenness, I was more willing to come to Him in prayer. In my brokenness, I was more willing to ask Him to take control of these fires than to ask Him why. And it was in my brokenness that I realized God knows what the future holds and He can do mighty things through these fires. I need only to trust in Him, the author and creator of this world and all that is within it.

1 Peter 1:6-9

In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ; and though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, obtaining as the outcome of your faith the salvation of your souls.