Jessi's blog

I just want to direct all of you to Jessi's blog. She is hurting right now and needs prayers for her friend and her friend's newborn baby. Please read her last two posts and say a prayer for them.

After reading Jessi's blog, I immediately pulled off of my shelf the book, Where is God When it Hurts? by Philip Yancey. I read this book for a Philosophy class in college. It is a fantastic book that helps answer so many questions about pain and suffering.

The following are a few quotes that I had highlighted in college that mean so much more to me now. I think you have to go through some pain and suffering to really understand how much God loves us.

"Pain is not an afterthought, or God's great goof. Pain is essential to a normal life... Without pain, our lives would be fraught with danger, and devoid of many basic pleasures."

"Suffering calls our most basic beliefs about God into question. When it strikes, I cannot help wondering: what is God trying to tell me?"

"A human tragedy, can be used to display God's work. But in every case, suffering offers an opportunity for us to display God's work."

"Romans 5:3-5 breaks down the process into stages: 'We also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.' Quite simply, a quality like perseverance will only develop in the midst of trying circumstances. Thank about it: a person who always gets what he or she wants has no chance to learn perseverance, or patience. Suffering can be one of the tools to help fashion those good qualities."

"At the instant of pain, it may seem impossible to imagine that good can come from tragedy. (It must have seemed so to Christ at Gethsemane.) We never know in advance exactly how suffering can be transformed into a cause for celebration. But that is what we are asked to believe. Faith means believing in advance what will only make sense in reverse."

"In some incomprehensible way, because of Jesus, God hears our cries differently. The author of Hebrews marvels that whatever we are going through, God has himself gone through. 'For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are- yet was without sin' (4:15)."

If anyone wants to borrow this book (highlights and all) just let me know. It really does help you understand where God is throughout your hurting.