Refuge

We sit in the back at church.  We’ve got 2 squirmy boys so it makes sense to sit back there in case we need to make a quick exit for someone to get the wiggles out on a little walk or if one someone needs to go to the bathroom.

From the back I can see almost everyone.  Yesterday I was looking around the sanctuary and I was thinking about the various people and their lives.   And for some reason a lot of the hard stuff came to mind.  I thought of a lot of the heartaches and tough times that I knew various people had endured.

That’s not to say that everything has been tough.  I think all of those people would tell you how blessed they are and that God is good even among the difficult times.  But life is hard.

I love the Andrew Peterson song that says:

“Give us faith to be strong
Give us strength to be faithful
This life is not long, but it’s hard”

Life is hard.  I’m not trying to be negative or pessimistic but in the past few years I have seen a lot of people I know walk through some hard things and we have walked through some too.  And the thing is I don’t feel down or sad about this because the faith that God gives us gives us the strength to get through the hard stuff.

In the midst of all my thoughts yesterday a verse stuck out in my mind: