Wow, you definitely have gone through something like what I am going through right now! About half of that could've been lifted verbatim from my private paper journal. :)
I can look back now and see ways in which God was working during that time, and ways in which it has led to good things in my life that would not have happened otherwise, but it was completely impossible for me to see those things while I was going through it -- not because I was blind or willfully ignorant to God's hand in the situation, but because it was happening out of my view.
*tears up* You are making me hopeful. I mean, my dad has been telling me tales of when this sort of thing happened to him, but his stories scare me a bit (he grew up in a very legalistic church, and God had to basically smash in his whole world in order to dig him out of all that baggage), and it's neat to hear it from someone else. Even though it's still scary, not being able to see what He's doing.
As for the listening thing, yes, yes, yes. I run Stephen Ministry at my church, and the biggest thing we have to teach our new ministers is what not to say (as in your funeral example) and how to hold their fix-it impulse in check to just really listen. It's amazing what God can do through us or around us when we allow ourselves to be present but get out of the way.
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I can look back now and see ways in which God was working during that time, and ways in which it has led to good things in my life that would not have happened otherwise, but it was completely impossible for me to see those things while I was going through it -- not because I was blind or willfully ignorant to God's hand in the situation, but because it was happening out of my view.
*tears up* You are making me hopeful. I mean, my dad has been telling me tales of when this sort of thing happened to him, but his stories scare me a bit (he grew up in a very legalistic church, and God had to basically smash in his whole world in order to dig him out of all that baggage), and it's neat to hear it from someone else. Even though it's still scary, not being able to see what He's doing.
As for the listening thing, yes, yes, yes. I run Stephen Ministry at my church, and the biggest thing we have to teach our new ministers is what not to say (as in your funeral example) and how to hold their fix-it impulse in check to just really listen. It's amazing what God can do through us or around us when we allow ourselves to be present but get out of the way.