When it Seems like it’s Just One Trouble After the Next (A Guest Post for Ann Voskamp)
Welcome, good people!
If you’re visiting from Ann Voskamp’s blog today, a warm hello to you. I wish I could reach through the screen and shake your hand, maybe even hug you. It’s a pleasure to meet you, and I want to whisper this in your ear: You matter to God, you matter to people. And you matter to me.
I’m the wife of an Iowa farmer, the mother of two girls, a writer, a storyteller and a woman who believes that it really is all about Jesus. I marvel at God’s unrelenting grace for people who mess up – stumbling sinners like me, who have been made whole through Christ.
There’s always, always a spot at my table for you.
(I’d love it if you would consider subscribing to my posts. Subscribing is free. Subscribe by clicking here.)
And for my regular readers, I’d love it if you would join me over on Ann’s porch today, up on her farm in Canada? We’re waiting for you.
This one here? This is what you need to know when it seems like you’re facing one trouble after the next, and when it seems like you might just drown… (Read more here.)
Jennifer, this is such a beautiful post! Thank you. Oh my! All those treasured memories-in-a-box. I’m so glad (even though I know that earthly things all eventually will perish), that God enabled you to salvage them, if water-stained. They’ll always be a reminder of this beautiful post and how you are sharing with so many readers about how Christ and His Tree bring victory in the storms of life. Who knows that if that flood hadn’t happened, damaging your treasures, that you might not have had the same story to tell to those who need to hear how there is hope in life’s ravaging storms? I love how you tell us to hold on. I might also add that while, yes, we do hold on, moreover, it’s He who holds on to us, and promises never to let go. In this too we rest secure. I love you, Jennifer, and I praise God for your faithfulness to keep telling His Story through yours!
Love
Lynn
this is the first I’ve read your writings but I’m already a fan 🙂 Thank you for this wonderful post.
Love – Heidi from http://tryingnot2blink.com/2013/05/31/when-they-get-too-big-to-tell-you-whats-wrong-a-prayer/
Oh, Jennifer – timing is *everything*! The link for this post showed up in my inbox just a few minutes after we got a call from the property manager where our home in Sioux Falls is. Apparently someone broke in the back door, and we’re still over here in MN caring for Warren. Fearing the worst, Joy set out for the house while I kept Warren on schedule.
45 minutes and a phone call or two later, it seems like not much of anything was taken – nothing from the house, and possibly only a few tools from the garage (but even that we’re not sure of, as they might be in the shed).
As always, we hang on Christ.
Timely. Beautiful. Rich. Thank you Jennifer –
I was wondering why God said to meditate on the crucifixion while on vacation at the beach. Now I get it.
This is one of those “God moments” for Mr Jennifer. We are walking through difficulties right now, and over and over a small snatch of a song keeps running through my heart: ” Jesus You have overcome the world…” For days and days. Then this morning, there it was in in my little devotional. And now this. Thank you.
This is just so beautiful. He overcame the world… WOW. Such words! 🙂
Good stuff, Jennifer. Just hang on to the Tree.
I have no adequate words. That was everything I needed to hear. That was a treasure.
Wonderful post at Ann’s, Jennifer!
Jennifer, I loved reading this. I am so thankful God led me to Ann’s site today. Your words spoke straight to my heart. I am hanging on and relying on God to get me through some very hard places. He is SO faithful! I am SO sorry to hear about your childhood memories becoming damaged…my heart went out to you so much when I read about it. I am so thankful God allowed you to salvage them, and not all was lost. Kind of reminds me of us and how life’s storms leave us damaged…and how once we come through them, we are never the same. But, in the same way as you cherish your memories and keepsakes, God treasures us…even though we are left broken and shattered in the storm’s aftermath. You don’t love your things any less, just because they are now stained. They still have the same value to you. God doesn’t love us any less, either….no matter how storm-ravaged and damaged we are. And, as you carefully and gently took the time to do your utmost to restore your precious things, God carefully picks through the shattered brokenness of “us”, and He takes the necessary time, pains, and energy to “dry us off” and restore us, because we are way too precious to His heart to cast off as “too damaged to salvage”. We come to the Potter marred; He carefully and tenderly makes us again…on the wheel. I got SO much out of this today. Thank you ever so much for sharing your heart. I NEEDED this. God’s peace be with you, Cheryl
Jennifer, I feel that when the water is very cold and the river never stops raging eventually you will loose your strengh and you will let of of the tree . And it will also be a relief because you don’t have to wait for Gods mercy any more and you can stop begging and praying to a God who seems absent . And in the end if God is God I should ask what I can do for God and not the other way around and I know I will never be able to do that..
Ulli
A beautifully-written, thought-provoking post, Jennifer. I appreciate your insight for John 16:33, highlighting the good news at the end of the verse. We can “take heart” with strength and courage; Jesus will see us through our troubles. The story of John, the retired firefighter, is a memorable lesson for all of us, to be encouragers for those struggling through a storm. Thank you, Jennifer!
This is such an amazing post, Mom/ I love you, and God is so proud of you!!
Hi Jennifer! That was a beautiful post. Yes, let us hold onto that tree with all our might! I love your sweet Lydia cheering you on above….What a blessing. To see you pour into others and watch them pour right back into you…especially your own children. I’m so proud of you too!
Hugs,
Kelly
(One of our go to verses from Job .. “We are born into trouble as the sparks fly upward.” Yes, trouble will come. Let us hold onto The Overcomer!