Jeremiah 6:16 in the Septuagint tells us:

…Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths of the Lord; and see what is the good way, and walk in it, and ye shall find purification for your souls.

According to Vocabulary.com, purification is when things are cleaned and made pure. I like that definition. We need to always be seeking purification ~ cleansing. Striving to walk in the Lord’s ways, striving to be like him, striving to walk in His footsteps, allowing ourselves to be molded and refined for His glory. Cleansed. Continue reading

From The Four Loves by C. S. Lewis:

Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. To love is to be vulnerable.

There was a time when my heart had become hardened in relationships with others. Chronic fatigue and depression had also set in and the “fight or flight” mechanism had definitely switched completely to “flight.” Then a close friend passed away. She didn’t just pass away, she disappeared for 11 days and when they found her they discovered she had taken her own life.

That was a dismal day.

But through the funeral and grieving process I discovered something amazing. There was an awakening happening inside me. Where I would normally have wanted to draw inside myself and stay away from people because getting too close means you may lose them, and that would hurt, I wanted to run to my departed friend’s other friends, share a pot of tea with them, and draw close to the ones who had loved my friend as much as I did.

And that felt really, really good.

Don’t allow anything to keep you from “feeling” ~ it only leads to a dark place. Instead, rejoice in the moment you are in. That is one of the key ingredients of overcoming or preventing depression.

Over the years I have heard about and experienced a number of Divine appointments ~ “chance” encounters clearly engineered God. When I heard my new friend’s story, it completely blew me away!

Linda and her husband adopted 2 children (a boy and a girl) from Haiti. In 2000, while awaiting the adoption of their daughter, Linda had a “chance” encounter with a fellow customer in a grocery store in their small Iowa town. One thing in the conversation led to another and it was discovered the woman had done mission work at the very orphanage in Haiti where their daughter had been dropped off by her birth father, This woman had taken a group photo that included their future daughter’s birth father!

That’s not all ~ the lady and her husband had themselves transported the little girl to the Maranatha Children’s Home in Port-au-Prince which led to her being adopted by my friends.

The next year they adopted a little boy from the same organization. The year following his adoption, Linda just “happened” to be visiting a thrift store in their hometown in Iowa when she and another customer struck up a conversation. One thing in the conversation led to another and it was discovered this second woman also had done mission work at the same orphanage where Linda’s son had been dropped off and she had a picture of him and his birth father together! She had been there that very day!

Unbelievable!

Linda tells me she could spend all night telling stories of God’s intervention and provision during the long, arduous process of adopting from another country.

Both she and her husband know God was intimately involved in the entire process and they give Him the glory.

I would encourage you today to trust Him with the details of your life. He can do amazing things!