5/5/15
There
are times when a I have felt frozen by life and the challenges that
seem to paralyze me. The snow drifts of hard paths seem too much for me
to overcome. Then comes the day when I seem like I am at the top of the
mountain and then something happens. There I am needing oil on my joints
just like the Tin Man in Alice in Wonderland as rust sets in leaving me
immobilized all over again.
This sort of thing happened to me on the day before the opening of school in 1954. I had just arrived home from a great vacation in Canada. I had had a great time, and now I was thrilled to go back to school, be a sixth grader, and see my friends that I had not seen all summer. Then the phone rang and my world was turned dusty. The news shouted by my grandfather when he answered the phone was that my Great Auntie Vida, my favorite, had died in a car/18 wheeler crash that afternoon. The next few months were a nightmare. My mother had a stroke at the funeral and ended up in the hospital for several months. My father had to go away to a job...he worked on the road training men in the use of card clothing drums. I ended up in the car of my mother's girlfriend who was stern almost to the point of abusiveness. I got into a lot of trouble in school that year, but no one seemed to notice that perhaps what I was going through could be the reason. Things that came from all that carried on with ramifications for about two years.
I survived, and that was not the only challenge that I have faced throughout my life. In 20/20 hindsight some were not as traumatic as they seemed when I was going through them. At the time they were beyond difficult. I am older, and now I am fully aware of this scripture.
In
the end he came out just where God had planned him to be. One of my
favorite themes in the song is that he was not part of what his family
tree would have said he was. There is a line that I really love. "Learning
to forgive what has already been done." In times of adversity things
are done to you that can destroy you or help you grow stronger and
better. You just have to be pliable and be willing to bend. Forgiveness
is the key to ending up better than you were at the start.
Written by
Corinne Mustafa
There
are times when a I have felt frozen by life and the challenges that
seem to paralyze me. The snow drifts of hard paths seem too much for me
to overcome. Then comes the day when I seem like I am at the top of the
mountain and then something happens. There I am needing oil on my joints
just like the Tin Man in Alice in Wonderland as rust sets in leaving me
immobilized all over again.This sort of thing happened to me on the day before the opening of school in 1954. I had just arrived home from a great vacation in Canada. I had had a great time, and now I was thrilled to go back to school, be a sixth grader, and see my friends that I had not seen all summer. Then the phone rang and my world was turned dusty. The news shouted by my grandfather when he answered the phone was that my Great Auntie Vida, my favorite, had died in a car/18 wheeler crash that afternoon. The next few months were a nightmare. My mother had a stroke at the funeral and ended up in the hospital for several months. My father had to go away to a job...he worked on the road training men in the use of card clothing drums. I ended up in the car of my mother's girlfriend who was stern almost to the point of abusiveness. I got into a lot of trouble in school that year, but no one seemed to notice that perhaps what I was going through could be the reason. Things that came from all that carried on with ramifications for about two years.
I survived, and that was not the only challenge that I have faced throughout my life. In 20/20 hindsight some were not as traumatic as they seemed when I was going through them. At the time they were beyond difficult. I am older, and now I am fully aware of this scripture.
"For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord,
“plans to prosper you and not to harm you,
plans to give you hope and a future."Jeremiah 29:11
“plans to prosper you and not to harm you,
plans to give you hope and a future."Jeremiah 29:11
I
have found this to be true. There always is a light at the end of the
tunnel...not always a fixer but always a blessing to gain from God's
work in my life
I
got into this train of thought by a song that I heard recently. I always seem to
be behind the current times as this song is from a book, THE STORY that came out in 2011.
There is an album of the same name with songs about various people and
situations in both Testaments of the Bible. The song was the song about
Joseph. He had so many ups and downs in his life...
- sold into slavery
- taken into the kings trust as an adviser
- sent back to jail for a false accusation of sexual impropriety
- and finally in a position to save his family from starvation during a famine
In
the end he came out just where God had planned him to be. One of my
favorite themes in the song is that he was not part of what his family
tree would have said he was. There is a line that I really love. "Learning
to forgive what has already been done." In times of adversity things
are done to you that can destroy you or help you grow stronger and
better. You just have to be pliable and be willing to bend. Forgiveness
is the key to ending up better than you were at the start. Written by
Corinne Mustafa
I hope that you enjoy this music. It is from a 2 set CD called The Story which has songs on the first CD about the Old Testament and the second CD about the New Testament.
ReplyDeleteGod Bless
Love that CD set! I also appreciated your story Corinne, as so many kids I work with are going through really tough things, and people don't always recognize that the dysfunctional things kids (and adults!) do are often because they are simply in survival mode. It helps keep my own challenges in perspective, and reminds me that God can bring good out of anything.
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