This past
year has been a huge lesson for me on faith.
Everything I thought I knew has been torn down, rebuilt, torn down,
rebuilt, etc. You get the idea. I have been made aware of strongholds in my
life and God has used a scalpel to extract that sin.
I have hurt.
I have bled.
I have been completely
broken.
Yet, the
beauty that has come from this is awesome.
I am so
thankful to God that He loves me so much that He continues to work in me.
Through this
He has also shown me the effects of sin.
I don’t say this to claim that I am without sin. He uses others in my life to shine a mirror
on my sin. What I see in other people, I
try to evaluate in myself. It is a
humbling exercise.
In this past
month I had a front-row seat to the devastating effects of hate and
selfishness. I have seen the hardening
of hearts and witnessed the aftermath.
It is nothing short of absolute devastation. It’s not just the personal devastation; it’s
the complete annihilation of relationships for generations.
A year ago
my father-in-law lied. He created an
illusion, preyed on our emotions, so he could secretly divorce my
mother-in-law. I tracked him down,
through his lies, because I knew the name of his mistress.
For the last
year I’ve watched the devastating effect of his choices on those around
him. There is a loss of trust,
relational division, anger, bitterness, resentfulness, and lies. Each word that has been uttered has seemed
like another layer of lies.
It is at
times like this that I see unfairness.
He got married this weekend to his mistress. There are pictures of smiling faces, of
celebration, of joy.
The photos
you don’t see are piles of tissues soaked in our tears, scars that mark our
hearts, and the tiny fissures that pierce our trust of others.
I feel like
we have been laid bare in the desert.
We are hurt, we are bleeding, and we are completely broken. We are exposed.
Yet…
there is healing
from hurts that go even beyond this incident.
relationships
are growing stronger, deeper, more meaningful.
hope is
starting to flicker.
We are being
rebuilt on the Cornerstone. With that
foundation, there is a future, there is Hope and there is Peace.
I Peter 2:6 –
“For in Scripture it says; ‘See, I lay a
stone in Zion, a chosen and precious Cornerstone, and the one who trusts in Him
will never be put to shame.’”
