So Many People
You should know that Michael Hyatt, CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishers, is following me on Twitter. Me and 33, 203 other people! Still, I enjoy reading his blog and this week he posted some great perspective. In the middle of trials, instead of asking why, he as learned to ask What does this make possible? I love that. (Just so you also know that he appears to be rather normal in other respects, he notes in the comments that this question can be asked too soon to someone actually in a crisis – just keep that little tidbit of advice in mind.)
Being on the other side of a trial is a wonderful place to be – you are surrounded by perspective. When I see others just walking into a trial it is tempting for me to accost them with my hard-earned perspective, thinking maybe I could spare them some of the struggle. But that isn’t true, is it? We call them personal trials for a reason. Even though we can help each other through them with support and prayer and encouragement, the true gift of a trial is something gained as an individual.
I could share story after story of the many changes in my habits and ways of thinking during our time of crisis with Claire and her twin sister, Ellery, who died shortly after her birth. (Admittedly not all changes were good. I attribute eating for comfort to those difficult days when a trip to a restaurant was a cool oasis from the desert of our hospital surroundings. Very hard habit to break.) One thing that surprised me the most was how much bigger my world became during that season.
I had been raised in wonderful Christian home and active church. I loved it there and I grew spiritually. However, it was a small world. That can be good in some ways, but for some reason it had made me arrogant. I lived, worked, and learned with all the same people. I began to think we could do anything if we tried hard enough. But I was wrong.
When I experienced placenta abruption at just 23 weeks into my twin pregnancy six years ago, not only could no one in my church help me, no one in my TOWN could help me. I had to ride in an ambulance two hours before we reached the University hospital with staff prepared to help. Then for 115 days I met person after person who had sacrificed years of their lives and thousands of their dollars to acquire the skills and knowledge that were being applied toward my tiny baby girl’s healing.
We realized so many things in that hospital. Among them, we were rich in friends. Also among them, God had even prepared complete strangers to be part of our story. His world is so much bigger than ours. I would never wish for someone to go through the things we went through in those days, but I’m so thankful for the perspective. I’m thankful for a bigger world and a bigger God. Who knows, God might even be able to use Twitter!
*You can follow me on Twitter, too. Click here.
I too follow @michaelhyatt – because he first started following me. I’ve actually interacted directly through Twitter with him and with @gailhyatt through blogging and Twitter. I have no illusions they ‘know’ who I am, but its kinda fun, isn’t it? Twitter gives us a direct link to people we never would have thought possible.
On a more serious note, I’ve often wondered how your father, being a physician, felt, knowing he could not help you and his granddaughters and just a few years later not be able to help your sister. Maybe I’m answering my own question here. Perhaps it is like our Christian walk. We do all that we can do and we give it to God to take care of.
You are a God-send!! You AND your thoughts…I am so completely overwhelmed right now with the job change and selling the house and moving and building a house and changing schools and and and….
BUT in the midst of all this, one of my friends told me last night – “when you are in your new house and this is all behind you, it will be good.” And now this morning, you remind me to think about what all this work will make possible for us.
We can give our kids the kind of rural life we had growing up. We can build the house we want to retire in NOW while we’re still young enough to do some of the work ourselves (and save some money!!) I can honor my parents by taking care of the land they worked so hard to have and pass down to me. And I can give the whole thing to God and trust that He will see me through.
THANK YOU Felicity!
God Bless you today…
I’m “going through” one of those times, so THANK YOU! I too needed to be reminded that 1) Humble myself, and not think to much of myself or my abilities 2) Sometimes being powerless is a blessing 3) The family of God is bigger than my immediate back yard (PRAISE HIM!) and 4) this to shall pass.
Thank you Felicity
I love the way God keeps stretching the boundaries of our little worlds. And yes, we do learn so much from our trials – even though they’re not fun to go through.
God has already used blogging for connection in my life – so I’m betting He can use Twitter as well!
I really enjoyed reading all your insights today, Felicity! I think I gleaned something from every one of them. That personal trials thing… oh that I could remember that with my children. I never imagined it would be so much harder to watch my children struggle with things than it was to struggle myself…even the little things. ESPECIALLY when I think I have the answer all figured out and can hand it over to them in a pretty little box with a big bow. Letting them just live through their own trials is so hard for me!
And the whole arrogance thing… I can relate. For me, I think I believed so much in the church, that I put more faith in it than I did God…and I didn’t even realize it. I still totally believe in the importance of the church and relationships, but have a much better sense of how it all pales in comparison to Him.
Yes, Tracy, that is a great way to say it: “a much better sense of how it all pales in comparison to Him.” I love, love, love the Church, but I realize my own failure was to see that God created the Church and not the other way around!
Thank you Felicity for this honest and helpful post! I love the statement: “God had even prepared complete strangers to be a part of our story.”
I’ve been noticing in the Old Testament how God always made sure there was enough for the “stranger”, and how people considered it an honor to entertain a “stranger”. Evidently He intended for strangers to be a part of each one’s story.
His world really is so much bigger than ours — and so is His heart for that world! Personally, I want Him to expand my heart more and more — that I might see and make room for the “strangers He’s prepared to be part” of my life story.
Thanks Felicity! This was inspiring!
I love this post so much. I’ve been thinking about these very things – how much we learn through trials for one thing. I get so happy about the perspective I gained sometimes that the horrible fear and struggle at the time really pales. You wrote this idea so well here, with so much love for the small world and yet for the bigger one you discovered. I’ve been noticing how easy it is for any of us to find a “small world” and shut ourselves into it. They’re all over the place – the church could be one, but also our career paths, our communities. Even the online world is very small if you only live there instead of in the real one. Anyway, excellent post. I read somewhere that you should have a list of favorite or most popular posts on your site somewhere. This should go on that.
I agree about this entire post. Excellent. And heart-rending, of course. Note to WidneyWoman: thank you for thinking of Wendell. Yes, it was awful for him. Claire, Ellery, Serenity. Awful. He went through some terribly hard times afterwards. But, I’m glad to report he is in the best place with God and all our worlds – small and great – that he has ever been.
Felic, I n e e d e d this right this very second.
God could use twitter indeed. Thank you for always sharing your thoughts and insight with us, I keep coming back to once again be inspired.
Its like a pat on the head with a “Tiffy its going to be okay” sort of feeling. luv.
Came to this corner on a google search of “Thin Places.”
Lovely blog …
Came to this corner during a google search of “Thin Places.”
Lovely blog … Glad to have found you.