What do You do in Dark times?

Here’s the deal, you are going through intense pressure at work, your finances are a mess and your kids are having a hard time at school with their teachers. Where is your focus? What are you looking at? Are you waiting for the other shoe to drop? Or are you looking for something good to come your way? Where your focus lies determines your heart, and your heart will lead you into goodness or into despair. I really think that despair comes when we are focused on the wrong thing.

I love to watch people who have been through intense pressure come out on the other side stronger and more sure of God’s goodness than when they went in. I think that is what happened to me last year. You see, you always have a choice. You can always chose to change your focus. I could have chosen to focus on my loss of Julia, my best friend and wife of 38 years. If I had kept her my focus, I would have drowned in self pity and the type of grief that is not profitable for the soul. But instead I put my focus on God and His love for me. I began to taste His goodness in ways that I had never seen before. Yes I would glance at my loss, and yes I did grieve and miss her so much. But the loss was lessened by the increased intense love that I felt by my Father. His love really does heal the soul.

Now, I am at a place where last year I thought I would never be. Yes, I still miss Julia, I always will. But I feel whole again. I can live and love life. I can alow myself to be loved by more than just Papa. Last year I didn’t let many people into my deep inner circle. Sure I did open my heart through my blog and I know that it helped many others. I helped heal me quicker than it would have. But now I can open my heart to others. I know that some walls have come down and probably others will. It’s good to be alive and able to live life to the fullest.

Over two thousand years ago, today was dark day, a very dark time. If you happened to be a believer you thought that your whole world had come to an end on the cross. You didn’t know that in three days, Jesus would rise from the grave. No, al you could see was that cross and your hope for the future hanging, dying. Dying along with all your dreams for the future. But if you knew, you could have set your focus on the Father and His goodness. Then you would have realized that there was no way that the Father was going to let it all end at the cross. No, the cross was just a means to an end.

The focus is on the life, the resurrection of Christ. When you focus on the resurrection instead of the cross them you can see that there is life, hope and destiny. So tonight I choose to keep my focus on all that Jesus did in His resurrection. Sure, He did suffer on the cross, but what a little time to save all eternity. So here tonight, on Good Friday, I focus on Easter. Yes the Resurrection Day. It’s a day of new beginnings as well as new life. Life is good no matter what you are going through. It just all depends on where your focus is.