Another In The Fire

I’ve seen firsthand the power of telling stories, and experiencing absolute freedom in exposing God’s goodness in the hard. One of the things I’ve also witnessed is how much the enemy wants to isolate us, to make us feel alone, and conceal the freedom and redemption we’ve been given from those who need to see it the most.

Our stories aren’t about us: they’re about God. When He leads us through something painful, it can be easy to dwell on that season, and to look back at the fire instead of focusing on the One who was in it with us. The beautiful thing about going through something hard is that we get to experience God’s goodness in the midst of it. His goodness doesn’t make our pain less significant, but there is peace in knowing that while the fire rages, we also have God with us at the same time. It can be both/and. We can experience immense difficulty, and walk through it knowing that we can lean on God through it all.

As God brings different people into my life that He opens the door for me to work with, I get to witness more and more seemingly impossible situations that His goodness is also present in. The resilience of the human spirit is quite remarkable. Time after time I have watched people walk through situations that seem unbearable, and yet I see them cling to God, fall into His arms, proclaim His goodness, and take their grief and sorrow to Him. He is never too burdened or unable to handle our ache.

So many times I’ve witnessed a profound transformation occur in someone through these seasons. I know these transformations come at a tremendous cost, but they offer so much hope to others that see it, people who may be going through something similar themselves.

“…who redeems your life from the pit
    and crowns you with love and compassion,
who satisfies your desires with good things
    so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.”

Psalm 103: 4-5

There is something truly incredible about seeing someone walk out of the darkest pit, the landscape of their spirit changed and marked by hardship, and watch them continue on with hope and spread it like beams from a lighthouse, casting it onto the dark waters of grief surrounding them.

I often hear people ask, “If God is so good and powerful, why would He let something like that happen? Why didn’t He stop it?”

No one will ever have those answers. What I do know is that new growth bursts forth after a fire when the soil is made fertile from the ash. I do know that God never wastes anything, that He takes the hurt that roars the loudest, and manages to make something beautiful with it. Oftentimes, that beautiful thing is also the catalyst for our healing.

I’m so humbled and grateful for the stories of hope that others share with me. They are an endless encouragement, revealing to me more and more facets of God’s character that I would only be able to witness through whatever circumstances that person has gone through and was brave enough to share.

That is why sharing our stories is so powerful. It’s not that we are, or our circumstances are, but simply that when we share the redemption we’ve experienced out of the messy, the hard, the dark, the painful, and hold it up for others to see, those stories shine as a beacon of hope to others. It’s a reminder that we are not alone. Those stories reflect God’s goodness as a bright light in a dark world, and right now, the world needs those stories more than ever.

~K.R.