Comments on: Remembering hard days - by Susan Lawrence

By: Susan Lawrence

Susan Lawrence — Fri, 03 Aug 2012 02:56:24 +0000

Hanna, I’ve often thought over your words since I first read them. There’s so much in that one paragraph that I didn’t want to reply lightly or too quickly.

God bless you for your vulnerability. And bless you for your hope, expressed in that last line, “I will continue to learn about myself.” I really do think that response is so very positive, especially in the middle of the muddle of being broken and and knowing we’re broken. There is hope if we don’t give up on ourselves, and if we don’t give up on God. As you wrote, you will ask God one day, Why? I think you can ask him today, every day or any day when the pain of being broken is too much to carry. I am reminded of what I read this morning in Jeremiah, chapter 15. It struck me so forcibly, so hopefully, as I read it; I underlined it and wrote in the margins. Jeremiah makes a beautiful plea articulating his frustration with his situation–a prophet who loves God’s Word but who is alone, suffering reproach.

“You understand, O Lord;
remember me and care for me…
You are long-suffering…
Why is my pain unending
and my wound grievous and incurable?
Will you be to me
like a deceptive brook,
like a spring that fails?” v. 15-18

And God not only lets Jeremiah express his frustration, He includes it in His Word, and He answers him:

“‘…they will fight against you
but will not overcome you,
for I am with you
to rescue and save you,’
declares the Lord.” v. 20

I write all this out, to encourage you to express that frustration to God whenever it builds up.

Thanks for your words, for sharing a small taste of your own journey here.

susan

By: Hanna

Hanna — Thu, 19 Jul 2012 14:59:37 +0000

This sounds so familiar!
Please excuse me for reading your second blog in this series, first. My daughter also Blogs here and I was reading her blog when I came across your second one. I think I have been “broken” all my life. I am now up in years and still broken but, through this journey the Lord has been providing clues to me and very slowly I have been attempting to put my life into some sort of perspective. There was a time when I was surprised to find that the underlying sadness I was always feeling was called anxiety and depression. Then,years later, the discovery of my attention deficit condition, with bipolar tendencies helped explain why I found I never could achieve what I wanted to achieve. Why, with so much promise and desire to learn on my part, I was always thinking that I was an inadequate loser, a trouble making rebel, and just a mess!My life has been a series of ignorant judgments by ignorant professionals and nonprofessionals alike. People trying like crazy to fix me and send me out into the world again….I will continue to learn about myself and ask God one day why?

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By: susan

susan — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 13:46:36 +0000

Very welcome.