Shattered Dreams and Miracles

A couple months ago a friend suggested that I read a book called Shattered Dreams by Larry Crab. It was SO good and encouraging. Just like the title says, it talks about what happens when our world falls apart and our dreams are shattered. One of my favorite quotes from it was

" Shattered dreams open the door to better dreams, dreams that we do not properly value until the dreams that we improperly value are destroyed."

Once you've gone something so life changing, you understand that quote. When your world falls apart and you feel like you've lost so much that you can't go on, that is when you realize how much you actually need God. When we are so low, God uses that to show us that He is always there. But we have to watch and see what God is doing through those times. We can't just sit there and watch everything fall apart and hope God does something. Yes God meets us where we are, but we have to meet Him too.

"My eyes stay open through the watches of the night, that I may meditate on your promises" Psalm 119:148

A month after I read the book I heard this song.

Before the Morning by Josh Wilson

"Do you wonder why you have to,

feel the things that hurt you,

if there's a God who loves you,

where is He now?

Maybe, there are things you can't see

and all those things are happening

to bring a better ending

some day, some how, you'll see, you'll see

Chorus:

Would dare you, would you dare, to believe,

that you still have a reason to sing,

'cause the pain you've been feeling,

can't compare to the joy that's coming

so hold on, you got to wait for the light

press on, just fight the good fight

because the pain you've been feeling,

it's just the dark before the morning

My friend, you know how this all ends

and you know where you're going,

you just don't know how you get there

so just say a prayer.

and hold on, cause there's good who love God,

life is not a snapshot, it might take a little time,

but you'll see the bigger picture

Would dare you, would you dare, to believe,

that you still have a reason to sing,

'cause the pain you've been feeling,

can't compare to the joy that's coming

so hold on, you got to wait for the light

press on, just fight the good fight

because the pain you've been feeling,

it's just the dark before the morning

yeah, yeah,

before the morning,

yeah, yeah

Once you feel the way of glory,

all your pain will fade to memory

once you feel the way of glory,

all your pain will fade to memory

memory, memory, yeah

Would dare you, would you dare, to believe,

that you still have a reason to sing,

'cause the pain you've been feeling,

can't compare to the joy that's coming

come on, you got to wait for the light

press on, just fight the good fight

because the pain you've been feeling,

it's just the hurt before the healing

the pain you've been feeling,

just the dark before the morning

before the morning, yeah, yeah

before the morning"

I highly recommend that book!

I also just read Miracles by Terri Blackstock. I absolutely love her books! The book is about this man who is a pew filler in church. His wife is really active in the church but he isn't. One Sunday the sermon is about how a shepard goes after even just one lost sheep and how we should look to save one soul at a time. Even saving one soul will have the heavens rejoicing. The man didn't know that's what the sermon was about because he wasn't listening as usual. But that night, he has a dream. The dream is about a women looking for a coin in her tiny room. She tore everything apart to find it. Once she found it she weeped with joy. He woke up wondering why she was so excited to find a little coin. He remembered the sermon earlier that day and tried to go back to sleep. Buy then a voice said "ephphatha". It freaked him out so he got up. To make a long story short, he find out that now he can hear peoples spiritual needs. He thought he was going crazy so he went to the preacher at his church to complain about his "curse". The preacher finally convinces him that it is a gift. The preacher takes him to a diner that they go to everyday. The preachers asks what he's hearing. As they go through out the day, they both see how many people will come to Christ once they know who Christ is. Christ is different things to different people because of where each of us are at in our lives. If they heard someone say to themselves "I'm so alone. No one even knows I'm alive", then they would go up to them and tell them how Christ never leaves or forsakes us. If someone said "if only I could rest I could do fine", they would talk to them about how Jesus said "come to me all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest". Just by doing these simple things, they led more people than they could count to Christ. They got their church doing it too just by going to talk to people and seeing what they needed. After 2 amazing weeks of being able to hear peoples needs, this man looses the ability to hear the needs. He thinks his life is over and is convinced that he can't lead others to Christ anymore. But his friends remind him that they never had the ability to hear needs. They simply talked to people. Finally he understood that he could still do it.
This was one of my favorite books ever! I recommend it too!!
So yesterday during class our lesson was about the SAME thing. These were the verses we read.
"One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, "Of all the commandments, which is the most important?"
"The most important one," answered Jesus, "is this: 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.'The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'There is no commandment greater than these." Mark 12:28-31
My youth minister talked about how when Jesus was asked that question, he answered it with something familiar that they already knew about. They had heard that from Moses so Jesus came to where they were to explain it.
That is what we should do. We all want to have the answers to be able to tell others about Jesus but we have to understand that just like Jesus meets us where we are, we need to meet others where they are. It's incredible what will happen when we start actually doing that.
There was a lady at the clinic who was telling me how she notices that missionaries and the church are picking up other peoples slack. She said she's not religious but that she's amazed at what the church is doing. She also began to tell me how lonely her sickness has been and everything. I then mentioned how great it is to have such a wonderful church family who is there for you and helps you every step of the way. She said how cool that was and that she might start looking into Christ and the church because she needs someone to be there for her. All you have to do is find out peoples needs and address them, just like Christ has done for us.