A Word From Sue

Google Earth…for the Soul

Have you used Google Earth? A great way to find out where the pools are in your neighborhood! It is amazing to start from outer space and zoom closer to the earth, then North America, California, Stockton, and surprise, surprise… your own backyard. Whoa, Nellie! I could use a good landscaper! Google Earth gives new meaning to the term, “perspective.”  You thought your yard was a perfect rectangle? Think again. And when did your next door neighbor’s lot get so much bigger than yours?

I think most of us could use a Google Earth for our souls. We always need more perspective. No matter how much we think we know…there is much we don’t know. No matter how much we are sure we see….so much remains unseen to us. Our noses get so stuck in our present troubles that we lose sight of the bigger picture.  And we need to know that there is a bigger picture and that God is hard at work in it. God is a big picture being. He knows what He is doing and where He is taking us. He constantly works on our behalf to redeem what is lost, repair what is broken, and restore what is damaged. But His timing often does not line up with ours. His eye is on eternity and ours is on right now. And the waiting threatens to melt us down. But as we learn to know God’s character and His ways, we get a glimpse of His perspective…and we have hope.

Do you need hope today? Ask the LORD to help you see things as He sees them. Do you know someone who needs hope? Gently encourage them with some of the perspective that He has given you.

“Weeping may last for the night, but a shout of joy comes in the morning.” Psalm 30:5 NASB

“Remember my affliction and my wandering, the wormwood and bitterness. Surely my soul remembers and is bowed down within me. This I recall to my mind, therefore I have hope. The LORD's loving kindnesses indeed never cease, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness. ‘The LORD is my portion’ says my soul, “Therefore I have hope in Him.’ The LORD is good to those who wait for Him…” Lamentations 3:19-25a NASB

Sue

Sue Eikenberry

Director, Women's Ministry, Counseling and Body Life