Maybe you recall a Christmas that was simply awful—a time
you were heartbroken, or homeless, or broke, or far from home, or jilted, or frightened,
or sick—a time of anguish and sorrow, and life looked bleak.
You remember it as the worst Christmas ever.
But I’d like to ask you to think again.
Writing a memoir can be such a blessed project: Memoir requires
taking long, deep looks at the past. Memoir involves pondering, examining,
re-thinking, digging deep and finding gems we might not have known were there.
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| illustration in public domain |
Sometimes what seems to be our biggest disaster or heartache
turns out to be a blessing—one we couldn’t have received without the
difficulty.
Sometimes we think a calamity will destroy us but God is in
the midst of our situations and, in the way only He can do it, He turns
everything inside out and upside down and—instead of destroying us—it makes us stronger
and better.
Failures. Tangled messes. Catastrophes. Tragedies. Conflicts.
Blows. Adversity. Upheavals. Disasters. Setbacks. Unwelcome surprises.
God can use our deep disappointments to get our attention,
shake us up a little,
clear our heads,
help us see we were putting our hope in something we
shouldn’t,
open new doors for us,
give us new perspectives,
tenderize our souls,
and give us fresh starts.
God can do all that.
That’s what Romans 8:28 is all about:
“…God causes
everything to work together
for the good of those who love God
and are called
according to his purpose for them.”
(NLT)
“The floods washed away home and mill, all the poor man had
in the world. But as he stood on the scene of his loss, after the water had
subsided, brokenhearted and discouraged, he saw something shining in the bank
which the waters had washed bare. ‘It looks like gold,’ he said. It was gold.
The flood which had beggared him made him rich. So it is ofttimes in life.” (Quoted by Mrs. Charles E. Cowman, Streams in the Desert, January 20 selection.)
When turn-arounds and relief and solutions eventually come
our way, it’s so easy to snatch them, run with them, and never look back. We
too easily fail to recognize God’s loving intervention on our behalf, and we fail
to recognize the good He has brought to us out of the midst of our hardships.
Take time—make time—to dig through the dirt and ashes of what
you thought was your most disastrous Christmas, and mine those bits of gold.
Search for evidence of God’s healing, new directions He
provided for your life, new friends, and new hope.
Pinpoint the ways He strengthened your faith for the future.
Recognize these were all part of God’s unique plan for you
and your life.
Gather all those discoveries and write memoir vignettes detailing
the ways God was in the midst of your worst Christmas ever.
Write stories about the way He took a disaster or heartache
and turned it inside out and upside down and turned it into something good—blessings
you couldn’t have received without that difficulty. Instead of destroying you,
it made you stronger and better.
If you’ll make time to do that,
you can receive heaps of blessings.
Give it a try!
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