Hoping

I've been learning some hard lessons lately. A lot of them centered on my self-centeredness in the face of a hurting world and an incredible God. A lot of them focused on just how far I am from where I thought I was. Tough stuff.

But yesterday I got a note from one of the most beautiful women I know. She told me how much she struggles with feeling ugly. And though, without hestitation, I've told myself this so many days as I look in the mirror, I was outraged that she should be lied to in the same way.

I found myself wishing there was some way for me to simply implant into her heart how amazing she is. How beautiful. A way that I could turn her around and make her see the abundance of fruit that pours from her life even in the few moments I spend with her a week.

Refinement is necessary, and there are lessons we need to painfully learn. But, I can't help that think God breaks in a similar way...longing for us to realize all that he has placed in us and made possible for us. He's not yelling; He's hoping. Hoping that today we will see that these cycles we resign ourselves to are, in reality, already broken.

How do we understand this freedom, let alone grab on to it? Easy to type, hard to own.