Moses had to lead people through the Red Sea (Exodus 14),
David had to walk through the valley of the shadow of death (Psalm 23),
Paul had to pass through Malta and endure great pain and near death (Acts 28),
And Jesus had to go through the most horrific death of all time (John 19).
THROUGH is a word I’ve been thinking about a lot in 2021. It’s seemingly insignificant, yet it’s key. As we live through a global pandemic, there are challenges, tragedies, changes, and impossible situations that each one of us is going through.
Yet, there is a promise on the through line. I don’t know about you, but I have a tendency to avoid pain, to minimize my consciousness by distracting myself with activity or numbing the hurt by denying that I feel ______ (disappointed, irritated, lonely, confused, burned out, etc.).
Lately though, God has been teaching me, it is precisely at the point of our pain that He meets me. While my natural tendency is to re-route around or over pain, like over-riding Google Maps and charting my own path that doesn’t account for road closures or traffic jams. However, I’m learning to stay the course and go THROUGH the pain because there is possibility in problems.
Sometimes God fixes our path, but He specializes in reconnecting us to who we were born to be in the first place. By going through, Moses found out he was a leader, David remembered to be meek, Paul understood his assignment to love everyone and not focus only on a destination, and Jesus won our salvation. Go THROUGH!
~ Joy Howard
Christ Fellowship