The Faith We Need for Holidays

From Thanksgiving, we enter the month when we will gather with the family several times to socialise
but also to reflect on the past year and give thanks to God.

Suffering has a way of heaving you beyond the shallows of life where your faith feels ankle-deep. It casts you out into the fathomless depths of God, a place where Jesus is the only One who can touch bottom.

Some times I think I’ll drown in the waves of pain that crash over me. But God is always my rescuer. He is my anchor, and I cling tighter to Him now than ever before. It’s because I need Him more.

But pain has also melded my heart with my Saviour’s. I find comfort in the Man of Sorrows who is acquainted with grief (see Isaiah 53:3). He is a better relief and rest than any pain medication.

And it is my pain that has forced a slower pace. I now see more in God’s Word. I see him in small and great pleasures. I feel His delight in everything from sun-dappled shadows on a lawn to those breathtaking moments when a wayward soul awakens to gospel truth. Somehow, pain—and perhaps aging—has helped me appreciate life more.

After Joni Eareckson Tada