Light, Love, Hope

This is one of my favorite topics that I never talk about.

I was recently sent a link to an article about someone who had “fallen out of love” with their significant other. After reading through some of turmoil this person went through, they made the point that they had decided to “choose to love” their partner.

I sat and thought about that; choosing to love someone. That is one of the things that has always resonated with me about Jesus’ teaching; we should love one another. There are different types of love. We love are friends and family. But then there are certain people that touch us in a way as to heighten the feeling of love. They affect us in such a way as to reach into the depths of our heart and warm our souls. That is a very rare and special feeling. I just don’t believe you can get that from “choosing” to love someone.

I have often wondered why we “fall in love” with certain people. I have always thought that it was some message from God saying that we should be a special part in someone else’s life; whether or not they feel the same way about us. Love is a gift from God that should be cherished and given back to the world.

I had to step away today for a little while.  Being glued to my television set for days on end watching the devastation unfold with the massive flooding in South Carolina really took a toll on me.  If I wasn’t watching the news non stop, I was checking Facebook like crazy to see if there were any new updates or pictures.

It is hard to watch this taking place with your fellow neighbors in towns that we love to visit and explore.  And now … there is so much wide spread destruction until we’re not sure if there will be anything to visit and explore for some time to come.

Even in the mist of this storm, we find comfort in the knowledge that all things are possible with God.  Despite the dam breaches, despite the evacuations, despite the people filling up the shelters … God is able to turn all of this destruction around for something good to come out of it.

I hear you asking, “What good could possibly come from THIS?”

Consider the neighbors helping neighbors.  Consider strangers risking their lives for others that are stranded and in trouble.  Consider the people coming from states away to help in the emergency relief efforts.  There are those working to collect water for those that do not have drinking water at this time.  Despite the mass destruction from the flooding in South Carolina, you find, once again, fellow South Carolinians pulling together to help each other out.

What you don’t see happening is looting, burning, or riots.  Thank GOD for people in South Carolina reaching out to help those in need.

God CAN take something awful and turn it into something that brings tears to our eyes.  As we watched all of this unfold over the past few days, we were glued to our television sets in complete horror.  And yet, God is giving each person in South Carolina the strength to get through this.  It feels harder than any of us can bear to watch this and be caught in the mist of it.

We are one of the lucky ones as our area wasn’t hit that hard compared with other areas around us.  There is flooding in town, and roads going into town have been blocked off due to lots of flooding as the river rose today.  The back roads were closed off as well until a few hours ago.  They have reopened them, and we hope they remain open so we are not completely closed off from being able to get into town for essentials.

We are clinging to the promises of God.  There was pictures surfacing on Facebook with people asking if they needed to build an ark.  God promised never to flood the earth like that again, and although it was bad here for a while, we were clinging to His promises.

The sun will come out again.

The flood waters will not remain.

People will be able to gain federal assistance to rebuild all they lost in the flood.

Lives will be put back together.

We are alive.

We have our families.

And God is going to help each and every victim of this flooding.  He is right there in the mist of all of this – standing strong by our sides helping us through this horrific time.

Many times I have heard the phrase; “anything is possible.” That can make someone wonder. Is something that you think will never occur possible? I can say from personal experience that that little three word phrase can be true.

I would have never thought that I would have the chance to share an afternoon with someone that is very special to me. Never in a million years would I have ever though that would be possible. But it did happen. For a single afternoon, I was able to share in the joys of the little pleasures that God has put on this earth with this person. It was a wonderful afternoon full of fun, laughter and enjoying the beautiful scenery as we went from place to place.

We need to hold on to a little more faith, a little more hope and trust in God that things are possible; though they may not seem that way at the time.