Weaving Through the Setbacks

My blog is gone. I’d uploaded a database backup plug-in, and upon activation, good-bye blog. Ironic, isn’t it? I can only hope it’s retrievable. One year of blogging gone forever.

Last night in between preparing cheese sauce and broccoli, a toddler wound around my leg, and a terrific thunderstorm, I wondered what God could possibly want to teach me through this loss.

My writing friends have been heavily on my heart these past two days, having received back their Genesis contest entries. Neither have been moved into the next round, and rejection is having its way. One friend swears she is done writing, it’s not worth it. The other is still wading through judges’ comments, finding encouragement where she can and holding her breath through everything else.

I hold fast to the belief that God allows these things to grow and teach us. My hope is in Him, not my blog, or my future writing career. He’s crazy about me and my future, and if He’s allowing this to happen to me, I can be assured that it’s in His sovereign will for my life.

My life is but a weaving between my Lord and me,
I cannot choose the colors He worketh steadily.
Oftimes He weaveth sorrow, and I in foolish pride
Forget He sees the upper and I, the underside…
The dark threads are as needful in the Weaver’s skillful hand
As the threads of gold and silver in the pattern
He has planned.
~Unknown~

And you know, no matter what trials we’re going through, it could always be worse.

But God has promised strength for the day, rest for the labor, light for the way, grace for the trials, help from above, unfailing sympathy, undying love. ~Annie Johnson Flint