heart connections...

My husband and I are reading Randy Alcorn's book, "If God is Good."  Tonight what we read dealt with suffering and disabilities.  Since there is no way to paraphrase the line that stood out to me, I am sharing it with you word for word; "It seems odd, but usually our greatest trial is what most molds and shapes us. It gives us character, backbone, courage, wisdom, discernment, and friendships that are not shallow,"  God uses difficult situations to fulfill his purpose. I can't help but think of clay at the potters hand, on the potters wheel....being molded and shaped into something beautiful even though it didn't start that way.  Not much difference to us and the difficult situations that we face. The molding part of the trials certainly do not feel good.  Most times it leaves us feeling, tired, weak, less confident, sometimes makes us feel stupid, and we lose 'friends' who can't handle us at our worst....and yet for all the struggles we gain in every area that we feel weak.  What Satan intends for evil, God redeems for good.  The scars of life add character, the guts to push forward even though ever fiber of our being feels like dead weight gives us a backbone, it takes courage to get up and fight the same demons that leave us feeling so weak the night before, our ability to 'feel' a situation is out of this world and we gain some sort of sixth sense from the heightened senses.....and the friendships - the ones that develop while struggling to live, to fight an illness that makes you feel so weak, those friendships are far and few and the depth of them goes beyond what any words could adequately describe.   It is true that those friendships are far from shallow.  When you are faced with an illness that seemingly has a mind of its own, its difficult to wrap your head around, much less try to explain to a friend.  If you are fortunate you will meet somebody who struggles like you do or has struggled like you do, if you are fortunate you will meet somebody who 'gets it.' I think that is crucial to a healthy support structure that gives you that extra push to keep fighting when you feel like you have been knocked out one too many times.  I can honestly say that I have been blessed by somebody who has opened up their heart and not only shared it with me, but taken me in and showed me that there is still good in me, despite an illness.  While there are quite a few people in my life who could tell me this, somehow it means something different coming from somebody who has been where I am now.  My brain needs rest.......