Restored: Transforming the Sting of Your Past Into Purpose for TodaySample

An Invitation

As I sat among those who felt they knew me and whom I worked with, I began to tell chapter after chapter of my story. I kept thinking, While I was surviving my childhood, God was building something in me so that I could do much more on this earth than just survive. I’m not alone in this. In the Old Testament of the Bible, while Moses was escaping the consequences of murdering someone, God was simultaneously making a leader. While Jonah was running away in fear, God was making him into a prophet. In the New Testament, while Peter was hanging his head in shame over his disloyalty, Jesus was appointing him a leader of His church. God just does that.

While we think we are merely surviving our pain, God is pioneering something new in us. Something useful for this world. Something beautiful. Sometimes the best thing we can do when going through pain is merely go through it and leave the rest with God. Going through pain is harder work than we think. It physically and emotionally exhausts us. It makes simple tasks like getting out of bed or taking a shower feel like a mountain to climb before our day even starts. And the tempting thing about pain is that we don’t have to feel it if we don’t want to.

In today’s world, we have so many options to numb ourselves and skirt around it. We can take sleeping pills, drink the drink, scroll the screen, or drown ourselves in activity. We don’t have to go through pain if we choose not to.

Many of you may not practice the same faith in Jesus that I do, and I respect that. But I believe that if you keep reading with me, you will see that the message this week will prove to be helpful and healing to you regardless of your faith. I think, together, we will find common ground in the trauma we have endured. We can celebrate the parts of us that we have been able to pick up and how we have moved on despite what we’ve been through. And I believe the parts of us that are still broken will find healing as we process our pain.

Heavenly Father, I ask that you speak directly to each person’s heart and life. I pray that rejection starts to feel like acceptance, and regrets turn to freedom. Lord, show each of us that you are a loving Father who is madly in love with each one of us. No exceptions. Amen.