Category: Words of Wisdom

Let your hope keep you joyful, be patient in your troubles, and pray at all times. – Romans 12, GNT

A little positivity helps. While it is true that it is good to be careful, sometimes being too careful leads to worry and lost of hope. No matter how we plan things, there is no assurance that they will turn out as we envisioned them to be. There will always be things that will surprise us, things that will be beyond our control.

And that is where a little positivity helps. The ability to look at things in a better light gives us strength to deal with the problems we face along the way. It gives us courage. It is like a lubricant that lessens much friction along the way.

I must trust that the little bit of love that I sow now will bear many fruits, here in this world and the life to come. – Henri Nouwen

He heals the broken in heart,
and binds up their wounds.
He counts the number of the stars.
He calls them all by their names.
– Psalm 147, WEBBE

How do you move on? You move on slowly, awkwardly, unwillingly. You move on not with your whole heart, but with all the broken pieces of you.

You try to be brave. You listen to what other people say. But no matter how courageous you are, and no matter what words of wisdom you’ve learned, none could ever take away the pain from your heart.

So you live each day not knowing how you’re going to live through the next. Sometimes all you have are hours of survival. Sometimes mere moments of hope.

Gradually, you heal. Not entirely, but in part. Each broken piece being mended. Each painful memory being healed.

Eventually you make it through more and more days. But though you’re able to stand again, it doesn’t mean that you stand without tears in your eyes.

You really don’t know how you even got to where you are. It’s as though you have just let the waves carry your helpless soul.

But you are grateful for each grace. And you pray. And you continue to hope. Ever so awkwardly, you move on.

“When pain is to be borne, a little courage helps more than much knowledge, a little human sympathy more than much courage, and the least tincture of the love of God more than all.” -C.S. Lewis

Your place in heaven will seem to be made for you and you alone, because you were made for it – made for it stitch by stitch as a glove is made for a hand. – C.S.Lewis

No person can ever be replaced. Not even the smartest nor the most beautiful person in the world can ever match the essence of who you are. You are here because God willed you to be, because no one in the whole universe can ever substitute for the likes of you!

And that is why each day that you are in this world is a treasure. For none can ever put back the hours that you walked upon this life.

You may have failed to notice it, for you thought all that you ever did were simple things. Nothing extraordinary, it seemed.

Yet how could the days you spend not be special? How could each breath you take not be more precious than gold?

This present time that you are here is that special time when people can see you dance, can hear laugh, can watch you walk, can listen to what’s going on within your beautiful soul.

No one else is just like you. Be who you really are!

“Before I formed you in the belly, I knew you. Before you came forth out of the womb, I sanctified you.” – Jeremiah 1, WEB

There are days when we’d rather go back and dwell upon the past than face the future or live in the present moment. It seems all the good things have happened already, and none of the things that can still happen could ever surpass our previous bliss. All that we seem to have is a great void for the present day, and a looming anxiety for approaching days.

Everything that seems to be worth having is already gone. Every plan that seemed to be worth taking is suddenly lost. How could we ever go on?

But we remember the promise given us. And we can’t shake it off our minds even if we can’t see yet with our eyes or feel them with our hearts.

We were promised not only the past, but the future, and all the blessed days in between. We were promised eternity, and grace for each moment that comes.

We may think like we’re walking the barrenness of the desert. Our souls thirst and ache, and our hearts are filled with doubts.

But let us not let go of our hope. And let us hold firmly to the promise given us. Even if we walk the driest land, God can give us streams of living water there. He will provide. He will make all things new. He will not only meet our expectations, He will surpass even our greatest desires!

Do not cling to events of the past
or dwell on what happened long ago
Watch for the new thing I am going to do.
It is happening already—you can see it now!
I will make a road through the wilderness
and give you streams of water there.
-Isaiah 43:18-19

He will wipe away from them every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; neither will there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain, any more. The first things have passed away. – Revelation 21, WEB

Sometimes, the darkness that covers the present moment is so heavy and painful, that even though we know God still watches over us, even though we believe that in the end, all things would work together for good, we can’t help but feel unbearable sorrow. Why must things happen this way? Why this indescribable grief?

And though we know that there will be an end to the night, even though we believe the sun will surely rise again, we can’t help but weep. For though such dark hours will certainly pass, it seems to pass so slowly. And while it lasts, eternity itself seemed to have arrived at our very door. A night of eternal sorrow. A winter that refuses to surrender into spring.

What can we do but wait ’til the night is over? What can we hold on to but prayer? And even though our prayers seem empty and dry, we trust still that the One who hears them lives! He is ever the same. He has sustained us in all our past woes, and He will carry us through though we may not know when, though we may not understand how, and though the only grace we feel is the strength to hold on for one moment more.

“It’s like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were. And sometimes you didn’t want to know the end… because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it’s only a passing thing… this shadow. Even darkness must pass.” – J.R.R. Tolkien, The Two Towers