{"id":2263,"date":"2011-10-22T07:16:34","date_gmt":"2011-10-22T14:16:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.eaf.net\/mvp\/?p=2263"},"modified":"2011-10-22T07:16:34","modified_gmt":"2011-10-22T14:16:34","slug":"where-is-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eaf.net\/mvp\/2011\/where-is-god\/","title":{"rendered":"Where Is God?"},"content":{"rendered":"

When I feel more like a crushed car than a freshly-pressed diamond…<\/p>\n

When my efforts resemble anything but success…<\/p>\n

When the aloneness and the abandonment mock…<\/p>\n

Can God be far away? <\/p>\n

Or is having a positive outlook and a hopeful disposition enough to suit me?<\/p>\n

Here. Let me give you a little background to those questions.<\/p>\n

My first reading this morning included this declaration: “after you have suffered awhile.”<\/a><\/p>\n

Shortly thereafter, I read this quote by Miguel de Luis: “Remember, when the days of dead moons and the days of fog and tears arrive that it’s on the Saviour on whom you must lean on, and not on your own strength.”<\/p>\n

A few minutes later I read Tony’s article at World<\/i> magazine:<\/p>\n

I\u2019m starting to get that compressed feeling, the feeling one of those self-help experts might be inclined to turn back on me with some kind of faux wisdom about pressure making diamonds. Pressure makes a diamond or two, to be sure, but mostly it just crushes stuff.<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

Suffice to say that surveying blessings instead of wounds is not something that comes naturally to me.<\/p>\n

But what a difference it makes, when I remember to do it. So after this sucker-punch of a day, the kind that in the boxing ring brings you to your knees, I sit thinking on the blessings […]<\/p>\n

When I write them down, these blessings, I run out of paper. My cup runneth over. Why fear, then, a few sucker punches?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

My initial reaction was gratitude. I was blessed and encouraged.<\/p>\n

Then I had follow-up thoughts, also good.<\/p>\n

Do read Tony Woodlief’s full piece: Facing the sucker-punch day<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And while you read, ask yourself, “Where is God?”<\/p>\n

What does He have to say about (and in the midst of) pressure and sucker-punches?<\/p>\n

I’m glad I read the Daily Light on the Daily Path<\/i> selections first. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

Oh, and about pressure and diamonds? Consider this:<\/p>\n

“But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold”<\/span> (Job 23:10).<\/p>\n

Now an unsettling question: Is God still soothing and rebuilding me from yesterday…or is there something just as bad or worse in store for today?<\/p>\n

Please pray for me.<\/p>\n

Thanks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I feel more like a crushed car than a freshly-pressed diamond… When my efforts resemble anything but success… When the aloneness and the abandonment mock… Can God be far away?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,12],"tags":[515],"class_list":["post-2263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christianity-101","category-lessons-for-living","tag-encouragement"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/prJUJ-Av","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eaf.net\/mvp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eaf.net\/mvp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eaf.net\/mvp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eaf.net\/mvp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eaf.net\/mvp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2263"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.eaf.net\/mvp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2263\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eaf.net\/mvp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eaf.net\/mvp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eaf.net\/mvp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}