Could it be that our calamities – our brokenness and pain – create a place of beauty to reveal His glory?

I think about the way he cups hands to catch tears that drip off my swollen cheeks as a child. Hovering beside me as I mourn the poor decisions of my single, tired mother. Because even then, I know that joy can fill a cracked vessel leaking empty when he we give ourselves over to Him, stop the striving.

And the more I watch her turn away from the gift, cracks transform to pieces and the deeper grief embeds her roots inside me for what could’ve been.

He takes those tears, pours them back in to my soul to nourish the seed of determination. And that determination grows in tandem with stature, roars pulsating with the message – You are not your circumstances -to every woman and child He brings across my path.

For the single teenage mom, the woman left standing alone in infidelity, the one who lives in the shadow of guilt, the mother who mourns a child’s destructive choices. I roar this message.

Because I know that living isolated in poverty with what is inside a bottle doesn’t quench thirst for fulfillment.

Staying stuck in past regrets isn’t the path to freedom.

Blaming circumstances on the actions of others is like trying to start a car with a dead battery.  No forward movement. The view remains stagnant.

So this year, as I link arms with the ones that say yes to count 1000 gifts, I rumble with hope.  That when we count all the ways in which He helped us to find beauty in the midst of sorrow, pain, sadness and joy we will roar together through a megaphone of grace, “You are not your circumstances.”

Because He uses all of our broken pieces to reveal the glory of His redemption.

The Lord called me before my birth; from within the womb he called me by name.  He made my words of judgment as sharp as a sword. He has hidden me in the shadow of his hand. I am like a sharp arrow in his quiver. He said to me, “You are my servant, Israel, and you will bring me glory.”  I replied, “But my work seems so useless!  I have spent my strength for nothing and to no purpose. Yet I leave it all in the Lord’s hand; I will trust God for my reward.” ~ Isaiah 49:1-4

Linking with the Gypsy Mama for Five Minute Friday with the one-word prompt Roar

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