I am finally back with the fourth instalment of my thoughts on Paula Rinehart’s book “Strong Women Soft Hearts, and I have to say that I am loving this book, but I am really loving how much more I’m getting from it by writing about it! Even in no one else reads these posts, I know I have really grown in my discoveries as I’m writing down my thoughts and feelings – things just keep tumbling out! So here are my thoughts on chapter four.
Losing Heart: How it Happens
“Hope that is pinned to God, rather than to people, has a buoyancy to it because it is grounded not in our own illusion of how our story should read, but in the character of God.”
Isn’t that really the basis for how most of us would be likely to lose heart – we get disappointed because something we hoped for, even when we didn’t realise we were hoping for it, doesn’t happen how we thought it would.
I don’t know about anyone else, but I definitely have a tendency to get lost and caught up in my own illusion of how my life’s story should read. Then I lose heart. And it can take me a while to find it again.
On page 48 Paula makes this statement. “If you want to know real joy in life, then be willing to let pain tutor your soul.”
I like to run away from pain, I usually don’t enjoy experiencing it, but recently I have been letting God break my heart a little. And when I do, my eyes are opened.
What I’m starting to realise is that when I allow God to use the pain, I become more of who He wants me to be.
Dave’s boss is currently battling cancer, and that got me thinking about the kinds of people who get cancer. It seems like it’s always the cheerful people, the people who are tough enough to find beauty in life and enjoyment, despite their suffering.
But then I felt like God said to me that I had it backwards.
In the moments of suffering and pain, they allow themselves to be transformed. They realise what is truly important in life. They let pain tutor their souls.
I’m sure that cancer, and any other loss or serious illness isn’t part of anyone’s imagined story, I know it’s not part of mine, but its how we choose to respond that makes all the difference in our hearts.
Will we choose to lose heart or to live a passionate life?
In the book Paula Rinehart tells us that the root of the word “passion” means to suffer. So in other words, in order to truly live a passionate life we need to experience suffering.
“In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)
God didn’t ever promise us that we wouldn’t have any trouble, hurt or suffering, and I sometimes forget that. But He has promised never to leave us or forsake us. (Deuteronomy 31:6, Joshua 1:5, Hebrews 13:5)
I think I’m tired of trying to play it safe, and trying to avoid anything that might hurt me or cause any sort of pain. Besides it hasn’t stopped pain anyway, so I might as well embrace it and live a passionate life that has some trials and suffering, instead of losing heart and living a mediocre life!
Right?!
Have a great weekend!
Sharen
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