When You're Hard Pressed, but Not Crushed ~ Words of Life Wednesdays {and a link-up}

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The heavy weight of winter can nearly crush a body.

I know. I've felt it in my weary bones.

The way one little flake falls upon another and another and another until we're walking in snow up past our knees. Then an ice storm or two blows in and encrusts the snow piled high everywhere. It can trip you up and strike you down.

Darkness descends early keeping the days short and the nights long. And right now we are oriented away from the sun and the cold creeps in and makes you shudder.

Some days the sunshine pokes through the dark clouds and the warmth from the sun that kisses the skin promises of spring that is to come, but then the North Wind blows so strong it feels like shards cutting deep and you just want to scream back, 'Enough already'. And you feel like you're an unsuspecting traveller in Aesop's fable so you pull your cloak around you tighter and wait for the day that the sun will shine in all its glory and prove that it's stronger than the wind.

I've about had it with the weight of it all, the darkness, the cold, and the wild storms when my dad calls me on his cell.

It's Saturday and I'm home alone with the kids and we're still cleaning up from breakfast and it's almost lunch time. The kids want to go sledding and I. hate. sledding. Someone always gets hurt, but my husband thinks I should get out while the sun in shining and go for a hike while he's at work. I know it would be good for all of us so we make plans, pull out boots, and pack up GTs and then the phone rings.

Dad starts, 'Hey, it's your dad. How are you doing?' like any ordinary phone conversation. Eventually, he gets around to tell me how he's looking for a new vehicle. His isn't that old so I ask him what's wrong with it. He kind of chuckles and says it was crushed. At first, I think he's kidding around so I ask him what he's talking about. Crushed?



He rewinds a little and explains how the big green steel shed that's been standing strong for about forty years just couldn't take the weight of winter anymore and the roof came crashing down. We're not just talking a garden shed, but an industrial shed and workshop with a steel roof. The roof came crashing down and here's the sobering thing: the peak landed exactly where he had just been lying within the hour. Now, I'm clutching the phone to my ear and I don't know what to say.

He was changing out a flat tire and had to run into town to get another part. Shortly after he left, the walls buckled and the roof caved in and the peak would have crushed him had he still been under his silver CRV.

There's a whole lot of damage, but when he got back home and opened the door to the shed and looked up and saw sky where there used to be roof and the steel peak of roof right where he had been lying he said he just started to laugh. Yep, his vehicle was crushed, but he was still standing.

What else do you do when you realize the weight of winter could have crushed you but you still get to wake up to tomorrow?

Life is so fragile and dark days can get us down. But when you put life back into perspective and remember to look up, you'll see the light.

So a couple of days later, I shoot Dad a text. I tell him how I'm thinking that God has incredibly spared his life twice in the last six months and I wonder what He's trying to tell him. I think he might want to listen up. I pray that he will have ears to listen cause it looks like God's not giving up on pursuing him.

You can't keep living in the darkness and think you'll escape death.

It's the light that shines out of darkness. It's only light and new life that will bring hope and joy and peace.

I can't get the images out of my head and I won't give up either.

God's love chases us down so that we might be raised up with Christ.

North Winds beat us down, but the Son shines forth in all His glory and we do not despair. We take shelter. We rest in the light of His glory.

He extends grace and we don't lose heart, but give thanks.

We press on while the troubles press in.

For there is an eternal weight of glory that is beyond anything we could ever imagine.

"For God, who said, “Let there be light in the darkness,” has made this light shine in our hearts so we could know the glory of God that is seen in the face of Jesus Christ. We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure.

This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves. We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair. We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God. We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed. Through suffering, our bodies continue to share in the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be seen in our bodies.

Yes, we live under constant danger of death because we serve Jesus, so that the life of Jesus will be evident in our dying bodies. So we live in the face of death, but this has resulted in eternal life for you." { 2 Corinthians 4:6-12}

{Also linking with Coffee For Your Heart}