PASTOR JOHN COLLINS: LIVING LIFE
“Cursed be the day in
which I was born! Let the day not be blessed in which my mother bore me!”
Jeremiah 20:14 (NKJV).
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| Pastor John Collins: Sometimes it is hard to hold onto what you cannot see |
The human spirit is
amazingly resilient. We are tougher than we realize. The truth is that there
will come a time or many times in a person’s life that will leave you low and
wanting to curse not only the world but your place in it. We are created with a
great capacity to feel great emotions both high and low and we are capable of
great compassion for each other and need to find the ability to have compassion
for ourselves, not in any superficial or selfish way but in a way that allows
us to let God into our hearts in order to be healed by Him. We need to choose
to not allow pain to overwhelm us when we will be confronted with pain every
day, whether or not that pain is our own personally or collectively. You see,
when there is hurt in this world we need to make an even greater effort to love
more. The more that we can genuinely love, beginning with loving God, who in
turn allows us to love ourselves, not selfishly but with compassion and the
ability to forgive ourselves so that we don’t go on punishing ourselves for
past mistakes, bad choices or tragedies that we internalize and take on guilt
for and that allows us to be able to love others with sincerity and truth. We
have to be able to see the big picture as well as the little picture at the
same time. Not only do we need to realize that God does have a plan and that He
has not forgotten us nor forsaken us but know your life matters, what you do
and who you love matters and that love needs to allow for forgiveness,
acceptance and hope to shine through the darkness.
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| Pastor John Collins: "Do not grow bitter for having known the darkness because without it you could appreciate the light" |
If you have not experienced pain of the soul that sucks the breath right out of you then you have not lived. If you have not stood back and felt awe for the world we live in then you have not awakened to the truth of God. The entire human experience will bring both despair and joy beyond imagination and knowing both allows you to be a better person and a person of compassion and truth. God is good and will not leave you alone. Do not grow bitter for having known the darkness because without it you could not appreciate the light.
“Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, because His compassion's fail not. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness. ‘The Lord is my portion,’ says my soul, therefore I hope in Him!’” Lamentations 3:22-24 (NKJV).
