Valleys of Sorrow and Peaks of Joy

I’ve lived more life at home this past year than ever before. It’s allowed for more solitude and stillness. I've been forced to slow down this year, and this carved out space is where loneliness tries to settle. I’ve faced impossible options and made hard decisions. I’ve meditated on truth that leads to life. I’ve prayed for more faith. I’ve ached for the grieving and grieved what’s been lost. I’ve finished the day weary and grateful that I was kept through the night. I’ve had to let go of my grip on temporal things and hold more tightly to things eternal.

My heart has been broken at all the hurt and I’ve lamented as my patched up heart quietly fails and turns breathing into a conscious labour. As I’ve watched death aim to plunge through the middle of life, I’ve felt the ways we are no longer equipped to walk each other home. I’ve learned we don’t understand death even as it’s been poking around in our lives. I’ve watched humans put great effort into medical practice while our souls shrivel in misplaced trust.

I’ve been slow to speak and then I’ve spoken words I want to snatch back. I’ve heard silent voices make deafening noises in my mind. I’ve read varying opinions on life-changing measures. I’ve seen vastly different approaches to unknowns in life. I’ve observed we demand to be heard, and easily dismiss the hurting. I’ve witnessed humans bash each other and trash each other and we’ve all ended up crushed in the end.

I’ve noticed we’d rather be right in life than live life with empathy. I’ve wondered if our own rights matter that much after all. People talk about the end as though they know what’s coming. I don’t even know if tomorrow my heart will keep on beating. I’ve tasted soul-crushing sorrow and washed it down with sustaining sips of sweet joy. 

We don’t walk through trauma untouched. But, in our hurt, our pain, our grief, our sorrow, we can reach out to touch another. That’s where we pass around sweetness to swallow the sorrow. We don’t weep in the valley without mourning. In our breaking, our sickness, our sinning, we can look to Jesus. That’s where we know the highest peaks of joy and perfect peace that will protect our hearts and minds, body and soul. 

This past year has awakened us to things long buried. We can pull back the shroud and see more than sickness and shadows. In the sting, there’s a superior Light ruling in these dark days. Instead of wishing to escape this life, we can wholeheartedly embrace a well-lived life. Instead of harbouring despair, we can dwell in hope.

There is a refuge, a place of safety to let go of worries and fears when they overwhelm our souls. When we turn our eyes to the radiance of God’s glory—the Author of life who upholds all things by his power—our stories end with goodness tasted, love perfected, and hope fulfilled. 

Learning From the Life of Hannah: A Woman with Serious Problems {Part 5}

{To listen to the audio,  

join us at HopeStreamRadio.}

{This is Part 5 in a series on the Life of Hannah.

Click here for Part 1.}

For the last four weeks we have been examining the life of Hannah as told in 1 Samuel. As we come to the end of Hannah’s story today, we know God will be Eternally Glorified and we see that Hannah Erupts in Praise to the Supreme Ruler.

The God who Sovereignly Governs over all, Providentially Guides all circumstances, Graciously Gives all things is Eternally Glorified and “we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.”

“I consider that the sufferings of this present time”, Paul said to the Romans, “are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.”

Oh, He is worthy of our praise.

In Romans, Paul said: “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?”





Hannah knows the goodness of God in her life and understood that there is no one like our God who will graciously give us all things.

Hannah’s heart erupts in praise to the Lord. She takes what has happened in her life and she breaks forth in magnificent descriptions of the character and goodness of God.

Her joy is in the Giver, not the gift.



In 1 Samuel chapter two, we read Hannah’s prayer.

In her prayer, Hannah meditates on the extraordinary goodness of God to her with all of who she is, she rejoices in the strength His gives. Her heart leaps for joy at his salvation; his deliverance.

She proclaims his absolute holiness, and acknowledges there is none like Him. He is above all.

Hannah uses the metaphor of the “rock” and speaks of his majesty and might. She knows He is the safe dwelling place for his people.

She speaks of His omniscience, His sovereignty, His omnipotence and His power over life and death. Hannah declares He is Creator and Sustainer of all. That He upholds all things and directs all things.

He knows all things: He knows our heart, our thoughts, our actions.

He is the Supreme Ruler. His plans will come to pass.

She knows He is Just and merciful, gracious and faithful in His promises.

She tells of the promised Messiah.

These are the things Hannah’s heart knows. Do you know God like this? Does your heart leap for joy the way Hannah’s did?





Hannah’s tune changes from weeping over her problems with sorrow to rejoicing in the Lord with this song of praise.

The book of Samuel begins with Hannah praying for the son that God would use to lead the nation of Israel from the time of the judges to establish the Davidic monarchy. God promised a Messiah through the line of David and to establish David’s throne forever. Jesus Christ, the promised Messiah, our Redeemer will reign forever.

Nothing can frustrate God’s plan.

Jesus Christ is the perfect substitutionary sacrifice and He bore the wrath of God for our sin that He might bring us to God.

The Supreme Ruler who Sovereignly Governs, Providentially Guides, and Graciously Gives, provides Hannah with three more sons and two daughters. Her future is secure.

In every way His will must prevail.





You may be women with serious problems, but we have a God who is Supreme over all. Because of His love He will graciously give you all things to conform you into the likeness of His Son to the praise of His glory.

With all your afflictions, sorrows, and anxieties find your joy in the Lord.

God Sovereignly Governs, Providentially Guides, Graciously Gives, and is Eternally Glorified.

Like Hannah, will you endure your problems, earnestly pour out your soul, entrust your Provider with all that He gives you and erupt in praise to your Saviour?

We have looked to the life of a woman with serious problems whose joy was ultimately in the Lord. We will conclude with these words Joseph Addison wrote in his hymn:

“Ten thousand thousand precious gifts

My daily thanks employ;

Nor is the least a cheerful heart

That tastes those gifts with joy.

Through every period of my life

Thy goodness I’ll pursue

And after death, in distant worlds,

The glorious theme renew.

Through all eternity to Thee

A joyful song I’ll raise;

For, oh, eternity’s too short

To utter all Thy praise!”

What Motherhood Has Taught Me: Joy, Peace and Hope in the Journey

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join us here at Hope Stream Radio.}

April 13, 2001 I woke in the murky darkness of a new day hours before the sun rose like a beacon of hope. I was alone the moment I saw the first sign that the baby I had carried in my womb for 38 weeks would soon be in my arms.

I had done nearly everything I could do to prepare for this new life, but, in that moment, I sat in stunned uncertainty and curious expectation.

I was still sitting dumbstruck when I heard the front door creak open and Jon, getting home from a long day of work, found me wide-eyed with anticipation. I told him that I was possibly going to have our baby on that very day.

You know what he did?

He decided since I was still early I was probably in false labour and we should get some rest. The instant he flopped in to bed sleep stole him far away from the raging storm of emotions and escalating groans beside him.

So, you know what I did?

I called my mom at two in the morning to see if I really was about to have a baby.

Still not sure if this was the real deal, I shuffled my way upstairs, turned the computer on, waited as the old fashioned dial-up screeched in the silence and lazily connected to the world wide web so Google could confirm that I was absolutely for sure, going to have a baby.

I became a mother on Good Friday.

There are times when it looks like hope has been tucked away in a tomb only to rise again and bring forth joy and peace.





At 7:02 pm after 18 hours of intense laboring, my firstborn sucked in her first breath of air and let out a lusty shriek that took my breath away.

I held new life in my arms, completely unsure of what to do next.

My body had split open and life slipped out and love burst forth from my wildly beating heart. Cries of anguish turned to tears of joy as I recognized God’s abounding grace in that moment.

A mother’s heart holds these cherished memories. From the moment of those first butterfly flutters, first suckle, first smiles, first steps, to the sleepless nights, scraped knees, shattered dreams, relentless sorrow.







We cultivate and nourish deep roots so our children will mount up with wings and soar.

A mother’s heart knows hope.

A mother’s heart can break over a thousand sorrows and by God’s steady stream of grace, pulse with joy and peace.

On August 28, 2014 I watched my children bravely walk out of a hospital, leaving their mother behind fully aware a doctor was going to do his best to help fix my broken heart.

What they didn’t know was how my wildly beating heart shattered to a million pieces as they walked out that door. No doctor could fix this heartache. My husband couldn’t fix this. Calling my mom or dad couldn’t fix this. Google couldn’t help me at all.

For fourteen years I had been a mother.

Once again I sat in uncertainty and again I had to let go and surrender them entirely to the Lord.

I had one thing I could do. One thing.

Trust the God of hope.

I didn’t know what would happen when the surgeon held my stilled heart in his hands, but I trusted the God who holds all things.

The God of hope picks up all the shattered pieces and makes us whole and causes joy and peace to overflow as we trust in Him.





So even as we daily lay ourselves down in the crucible, we are filled with all joy and peace and hope rises to overflowing.

Even in the shattering you shall go out with joy and be led forth with peace.

Consider Paul’s prayer in Romans 15:13:

“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”

First we will ask:

How do we get this surest joy and truest peace?

We are filled with all joy and peace by trusting in the God of Hope. God is the source of joy and peace. The faith that God plants in us reaps joy and peace.

God will fill us with all joy and peace as we trust in Him.

This faith comes from God.

As we take our eyes off of ourselves and trust Jesus Christ, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, we are filled with all joy and peace.

The next thing we should ask is:

What exactly is joy and peace?

Joy is God’s grace recognized.

Faith looks to Jesus Christ and sees all of God’s promises in Him. He is our eternal hope of glory.

When we see all of God’s grace poured out in Christ to us we are filled with an inner delight in God. Our soul will find complete satisfaction in Him – this is joy!

Peace is God’s gift of joining together into wholeness. He takes our sinful brokenness and makes us right with God. Christ came to bring us back to God. He heals the brokenhearted.

Charles Spurgeon said, “Peace is joy resting and joy is peace dancing.”

Finally, we will ask:

What is the result of being filled with joy and peace?

Notice the “so that”. There is an end goal of this joy and peace. “so that you may overflow with hope”

We start with the God of hope. Everything starts with God. God is the author and object of hope. God produces hope.

He works faith in us and in believing in Christ Jesus and his atoning work on the cross we are filled with all joy and peace.

And this leads to us overflowing in hope -- a lively expectation of what is certain.

Hope leads to joy and peace with leads to more hope! An eternal hope.

Christ is our anchor of hope. He holds us steadfast and strong and in Him we abound in hope.

This is not willing ourselves to grasp passing pleasures or pin down illusive peace, but a prayer that the joy and peace that come from faith in God will fill the heart that keeps on trusting the God of hope.

Now we come to the end of the prayer: “by the power of the Holy Spirit.” We are not alone in this journey.

Whatever we face, by God’s grace we can be sure that we can be filled with all joy and peace in believing by the power of the Holy Spirit.

As we cling to this promise, let us give thanks for this triad of graces God tenderly cultivates in the soil of our souls – full joy and peace, and abounding with hope.

15 Powerful Ways to Encourage Someone {Who Lives with the Cancer that Keeps on Killing}

"Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, 

just as you are doing."

{1 Thessalonians 5:11}

Childhood cancer is the cancer that keeps on killing.

It's the disease that destroys you before you've had a chance at living your days.

Oh, kids are tough and medicine is powerful and we can actually sometimes, or hopefully, most of the time, kill the cancer, but not before it has touched the rest of the child's life.

That's why she could never even call herself a cancer survivor for over 30 years. If you have to do battle with cancer when you are a thirty pound three year old, it turns you into a fighter, but you might not always taste the victory.

It's possible to survive the cancer, and for the medicine to save the child, but the childhood cancer survivor limps along in life with scars that never let her forget the battle she fought.

She knows what a life lived with limitations in all about. She has seen doctors shake their baffled heads and not know what to say. She's had specialists tell her hard-to-hear facts like it's too risky for your heart for you to carry around another baby for nine months and the three miracle children you already have need their Mama. She knows how big-time heart surgeons search for ways to help her.

She is never free from ugly realities. The way the threat of high-risk recurrences loom like great disastrous storm clouds on the horizon is scary. The visits to hospitals and appointments with specialists and endless pokes and hard examination tables are enough to make her want to crawl in a cave or fly off to a deserted island, or even better, live a normal life.

The child who fights cancer knows what it is to do battle, to persevere, to get up after she's been knocked down again and again and again. She's not looking for medals or applause and please, don't feel sorry for her.

She needs your encouragement. All the way through life.



Every time she's conquered something the doctors didn't think possible.

Every time she's knocked down with another discouraging report from the doctor.

Every time she forgets how to face the fear and turn to trust.

She needs your loving encouragement.

She needs your tears to mingle with hers.

She needs your words.

She needs your laughter.

She needs you to remind her that God is with her.

She needs your help.

She needs you to share your time, and energy, and meals.

She doesn't need you to try to understand what it must be like. You can't, so don't feel bad about it. Don't feel sorry for her.

Just ache with her over the ugliness of it because of sin and look to Jesus with her because he suffered to conquer the sin to give us living hope.

She has this road to walk and she does not go into battle alone.

And if this is the life she has been given then she is going to let her light shine.

Survivors don't give up. Survivors take heed, take heart and take hope.

When a survivor of childhood cancer gets told that her heart can fail her, she needs something stronger to stand on.

She needs a Rock.

She needs a Refuge.

She needs a Redeemer.

When a survivor of childhood cancer is told the her heart can't handle a whole lot, she takes heed, but she doesn't lose hope.

She sees her weakness as she looks to the One who strengthens her.

She tastes her tears as she cries to the One who cups her in His hand.

She knows the frailty of life as she trusts in her Eternal Father.

He comforts her. The God of all comfort sends His body to wrap arms around this little one in love.

She knows this is not only for a season but for the rest. of. her. life. She also knows she is not alone.

That is the power of encouragement.



Speak the Gospel to her when she is fainthearted.

Pray with her when she has lost a footing.

Care for her when she needs a friend.

Hold up her arms when she is faltering.

Don't be shy when she needs you to shower love upon her family.

Remind her to look to the faithfulness of God when she forgets.

Just, please, don't feel sorry for her.

Look to Jesus with her.

Proclaim His goodness with her.

Give thanks to the Giver of all good and perfect gifts with her.

These light and momentary afflictions have nothing on eternity. They are just preparing her for a glory beyond all comparison.

So, mourn with her that she doesn't get a normal life, but celebrate even more that she gets a new eternal life.

And know how much she wants you right there with her.

Tasting the sweetest victory ever. Eternally dwelling in the presence of our God who is always good.

With songs of praise to our Saviour on our lips and the scars of this life forever healed.

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

{Join us below for Words of Life Wednesdays and link-up your post.

We'd love to hear how God's Word has been nourishing you.}

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}

The Most Important Thing I Learned While Hunting in November 2013

"November is usually such a disagreeable month . . . as if the year had suddenly found out that she was growing old and could do nothing but weep and fret over it. This year is growing old gracefully . . . just like a stately old lady who know she can be charming even with grey hair and wrinkles. We've had lovely days and delicious twilights." 

~L.M. Montgomery, 'Anne of Avonlea'

She was nearly silenced.

Left without words to offer.

Stormed in with only a whisper.

Barely breathing in grace.

As the sun and moon took their turns in the November sky she could only keep hunting in the storms.

Groping her way to shelter.

Searching for refuge.

Gracefully bending under burdens.



Day after day, weak ones begged for intercession.

Storm after storm, weary ones cried out for sanctuary.

Battle after battle, warriors appealed for peace.

She tuned in for a song to be somewhere in the suffering.

She watched for joy to come in the mourning.

She waited for worship to follow the weeping.

She shook her head at the things that could silence her.

How the exhausting days, an off-handed comment, relentless struggles, winds of life whipping her in the face, darkest nights, and the depravity of her own soul could leave her hushed, scared, unsure of setting one foot in front of the other.

Her default, to wrap herself in fear instead of walking in faith, threatened to deride her.

But she had set out to hunt and although it looked different then she anticipated, in hunting, she opened her hand to God's grace, steadfast love and never-ending mercies, she released her grip on fear and she found refuge in the present suffering by seeing it in light of God's eternal promises.

Yes, tears fall in the tiring days.

Yes, strength fails in the storms of life.

Yes, disease and death do sting.

But as prayers are on the lips of the saints, the God who bottles our tears also gathers our prayers in golden bowls.

As our weeping endures for the moment, we know the victory has been won, the Messiah has come in mortal flesh as a babe, conquered all sin and death as the God-man, so our prayers will be worship to the One who sits on the Throne.

As our suffering must be seen in light of God's eternal promises, so our prayers will be made sweet incense when the worthy Lamb, who suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, opens the book and loosens the seals.

This is the thing with bottled tears and bowls of prayers:

God turns our wailing into dancing and our prayer into worship because, "behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered" and we will weep no more.







When the world screams no God she yearns for more God.

So she set out in an earnest search and called this month 'Morevember'.

And she found that this hunting was just what she needed.

To open her eyes to see,

to open her hands to grasp,

to open her heart to hear.





So even when she was dumb she was not without a hope.

When her tears fell, she believed there would be a turning to joy.

When prayers faltered on her lips, she presented only groanings and was confident the Spirit would plead on her behalf.

With bold supplication she surrendered, knew her own weakness and found refuge.



November grew old, and now passes on with a white gleaming crown.

And the one who was silenced, now she silences the nay-sayers with a charm of her own.

She gives thanks for the delicious twilights and the sunrise after the storm.

For the Son in the midst of the storm.

For the Rock who is her Refuge.

She finds her song in the suffering.

Her hope in the hurting.

Her joy in the world.

In Him. More of Him.

In His presence. His goodness. His love.

November wanted to fill her right to the deepest marrow with melancholy.

But in the hunting, her ears were ripened to His music. His mercy. His grace.

In the silence her heart heard His song.

"The Lord your God is in your midst,

a mighty one who will save;

he will rejoice over you with gladness;

he will quiet you by his love;

he will exult over you with loud singing."

Emmanuel has come.

In the morning we wait for fullness of joy.

God with us.

***

This is the final post for this series of Hunting for more of God's Grace, Steadfast love and His Mercies that are new every morning in 'Morevember'.

I invite you to never stop hunting along with me for more of His mercy and grace  and steadfast love to see more of Him in #Morevember on Facebook and Twitter.




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Linking with Emily. What have you learned this month? Please share.