Hope Arises

"The desire to quit is the last obstacle between you and what God has promised you."

Healing rarely arrives in the timing and package that we expect it to.  Our healing is coming in God's perfect season for us.  The process hasn't been fun.  In fact, it's been horribly painful.  We've lost much.  We've felt lonely, ostracized, robbed and broken to bits.  It's quite a shock to the system to go from being at the helm of various pioneering works for 13 years, finding easy community and favor within our leadership teams, to suddenly becoming "those people" who just washed ashore after a shipwreck.  Wondering eyes watch and most keep their distance.  Community, vision and purpose feel lost.  Dreams are dashed.  Invitations fade away.  A battle is fought for our identity.  We don't recognize even ourselves.

Strangely, I'm somehow thankful for it all.  I'm refined beyond who I was and stretched to be who I am becoming.  Never again will I see a shipwrecked soul the same way.  Never again will I sit on the front row and neglect to look behind me to the forgotten one who needs support.  My perspective has forever shifted.  My voice is rising up.  Silence is no longer an option.

I knew there was a great purpose for the pain.  There had to be.  I selfishly hoped it would pass sooner than later.  I thank God that I am now well and able to do more than I can remember doing ever in my life.  I thank God that we are on this healing journey and that He's faithful to complete it.  He's giving us keys that I know will have a lasting ripple effect in our own lives as well as in the lives of others.  A new season of pioneering is upon us.  Answers are being uncovered that we never expected to find.  Hope arises.  A new oneness is forged because we chose to fight for it when it would have been easier to walk away.

Healing feels so close I can taste it.

This is just the beginning.