As I travel and engage with readers, many open their lives to me and share their heartaches. In the last week I’ve heard stories of a husband’s unfaithfulness, a son’s death by homicide, a daughter’s rape. I’ve heard stories of childhood sexual abuse and a wife’s physical and emotional abuse. Many of these dear wounded warriors also share their journey of healing. They share the hope they’ve found in Jesus Christ.
But I confess, these stories often weigh on me and I want to shake my fist at God and tell Him He should prevent suffering. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again—I don’t understand why God allows Satan to rule as the prince of earth. I don’t understand why God allows heartache.
However, I do understand this: I don’t want to serve a simplistic God who is easily understood. If God isn’t bigger than my understanding, then He isn’t much good, is He?
I face a conundrum. Maybe you’ve faced it too. Either I rely on my own understanding or I place my faith in a God I’ll never understand.
So I walk in faith, awed, and sometimes addled, by a mysterious God. And as I watch, and wait on Him, I see something else taking place in the midst of the suffering. I see comfort. His comfort. Offered to those who suffer from those who’ve suffered.
I see a beautiful dance—a pairing of souls drawn together by mutual pain. I see purpose assigned to their pain as they offer comfort one to another. I’ve received that comfort myself, and I’ve offered it to others.
The embrace of God.
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. 1 Corinthians 1:3-4
His mysteries are as unfathomable as His love.
Are you walking in faith and in need of comfort? Or are you reaching out and offering comfort to another?
Ginny L. Yttrup
- Seeing the God Who Sees October 3, 2019“She gave this name to the Lord who spoke to her: ‘You are the God who sees me,’ for she said, ‘I have now seen the One who sees me.” Genesis 16:13 In the circular way God often leads, I recently found myself back in the wilderness, tracing the path of Hagar. I’ve walked with […]Ginny L. Yttrup
- Finding Mary October 3, 2019At 5:02 AM an alert, set to the Stress tone, sounded in my mind. Heart racing, breaths coming in shallow bursts, a long list of impossible to-dos running through my mind, I greeted the day. I threw back the covers and put feet to the floor of my bedroom by night, office by day. I […]Ginny L. Yttrup
- Every Escape I’ve Known January 24, 2017I opened the mailbox and pulled out a stack of envelopes. As I thumbed through them before making the short walk back to the house, I saw it. The return address. And I knew. The contents of the small envelope would wound me. Deeply. As the sender has wounded me so many times before. My […]Ginny L. Yttrup
- I’m Paying Atten… Wait, What? January 6, 2017I confess, I’m a bit of a rebel. A quiet, mostly well-behaved rebel, but a rebel nonetheless. I don’t like conforming. Following the crowd. When it seems everyone is doing something… Like making resolutions at the beginning of a new year. Or choosing a word for the year. I want to do something else. Besides, those […]Ginny L. Yttrup
- Doubt Sparks October 5, 2014The boughs of the redwoods, browned by the drought, bounce in the breeze. The same breeze that stirs the King Fire up the road, and the Meadow Fire in Yosemite National Park. Smoke, like doubt, clouds the horizon. Flames, the novel I’m writing, is never far from my mind—or my doubts. It isn’t that the […]Ginny L. Yttrup
- Raising Men April 17, 2014If I’d known then what I know now… When I held those precious babes bundled in blue. When during the night watches I rocked them to the rhythm of my prayers. When I was their whole world and innocence was still their reality. If I’d known then… I would have held them tighter. Prayed harder. […]Ginny L. Yttrup
- Rooted August 15, 2013I pounded the letters into metal—over and over—one letter at a time. The stamped jewelry was part of a 200+ piece custom order bearing the group’s theme. I saw the letters during the days as I worked. I dreamt the letters at night. I knew the letters in both English and Spanish. But the word […]Ginny L. Yttrup
- Really? September 13, 2012I’m in the midst of a season where I feel like all I say to God is, “Really?” While the question is the same, the tone, I confess, changes. Sometimes it’s laced with saracasm as in, “Really, God? You’re kidding, right?” Other times it’s asked in awe. The picture above reflects one of those […]Ginny L. Yttrup
- I Don’t Understand… July 16, 2012I woke this morning with a searing pain in my throat and a fog of discouragement hovering over my mind and heart. Why am I here? Orlando and the International Christian Retailers Show? I arrived in the wee hours on Sunday morning and have only left my hotel room to venture to a nearby pharmacy […]Ginny L. Yttrup
- Keeping Up April 27, 2012I often read the daily selections from Oswald Chambers’ My Utmost for His Highest. I like the way Chambers’ cuts to the quick: “Beware of any work for God that causes or allows you to avoid concentrating on Him (April 23).” Last night, like many nights of late, I didn’t sleep. It’s a season of […]Ginny L. Yttrup
