Beauty From Ashes

I have like many been enjoying Pinterest, the other day I found this quote and while I would love to give credit where credit is due, I was unable to trace it back to where it originated.  If any one knows please enlighten me.

I was really struck by this.  Do you need to have deep hurts to have an effective ministry, of course not.  Yet out of the ashes there is beauty.

To console those who mourn in Zion,
To give them beauty for ashes,
The oil of joy for mourning,  ~Isaiah 60:3a

For those who have experienced deep hurts there is an oil of joy!  What do you do with your deep hurts?  Do you push them deep down inside you?  Lock them up and throw away the key?  After all deep hurts are usually ugly and messy we don’t want anyone to see that.  What do you do with your deep hurts?  Do you lie to yourself and say they are not there?  ”If I fill my life with all sorts of things and keep myself so busy I will not have to look at them.”

What do you do with your deep hurts?  It seems we are a people who are so blinded that we have lost the way.  We look to the world or even to the power from within us to make us whole.  There is One who can console you when you mourn.  One who can bring you beauty from ashes, and a soothing oil of joy for your mourning.

We all have some brokenness in us.   We can let it sit and fester.  We can let it make us bitter and angry or we can let the oil of joy do it’s work.

Many of us are familiar with, “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” ~ Romans 8:28  There is great hope in those words but someone who is in the throes of that deep hurt may find no comfort in those words.  I have said before, I am no theologian but I have shared my take on those words before, and I’ll share it again today.

There is nothing good about cancer.

There is nothing good about divorce.

There is nothing good about losing your job.

There is nothing good about abuse… a destructive fire, a sick child, a death…

Where the good come in is that these deep hurts that could wound us, break us and possible even destroy us, do not have to.  If we answer His call he can turn our mourning into dancing, He can give us peace where there isn’t any, hope in the impossible and love that conquers all.  We may still carry the scars from the battle, but the good is the miracle that happens, when our ashes are turned to beauty.

Often we can even emerge stronger, wiser, and more compassionate and from there we can go on and let our deepest hurts become our most effective ministry.

Sharing this at Tea on Tuesday