{"id":493,"date":"2011-11-08T05:45:24","date_gmt":"2011-11-08T05:45:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ultimatejoy.wordpress.com\/?p=493"},"modified":"2011-11-08T05:45:24","modified_gmt":"2011-11-08T05:45:24","slug":"lost-dog","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/myrawells.com\/wp\/?p=493","title":{"rendered":"Lost Dog"},"content":{"rendered":"

I stopped dead in my tracks – sadness washing over me, pain searing my heart, helplessness booming in my chest.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Lily and I decided to enjoy the brilliant morning sun with a walk through the \u00a0neighborhood.\u00a0 All was well until I saw it \u2013 a lost dog poster. How miserable his owners must be!\u00a0 Lily was secure at the end of her leash; still I identified with the devastation of losing my dog.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve all been there.\u00a0 We\u2019ve all lost someone or something precious to us.\u00a0 Life hands us so many legitimate reasons to break down, to remain hurt, to stay a victim.<\/p>\n

Human nature encourages us to stay stuck in our grief\u2026to be unwilling or unable to let go of it.\u00a0 We can live so long in anguish that our lives become a miserable pit of desperation.<\/p>\n

And yet \u2013 whole comes only after broken.\u00a0 Healing comes only after wounds.\u00a0 The sun shines much more brilliantly after the storm.<\/p>\n

Jesus experienced the pain of being human.\u00a0 He wasn\u2019t supposed to be a carpenter \u2013 He was a king\u2026to be served and not to be a servant.\u00a0 But it is precisely because of the work He finished on earth that we are no longer lost.\u00a0 He reached down from heaven so we\u2019d experience the joy of being found.\u00a0 To be rescued from a world filled with dangerous turns and welcomed into the safe embrace of His arms. His story wasn\u2019t complete until He brought grace to the world by dying on the cross.<\/p>\n

Ephesians 2:10 declares, \u201cFor we are God\u2019s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus.\u201d\u00a0 You can\u2019t create a masterpiece without dark and light, harmony and dissonance, uncertainty and resolution.\u00a0 Even in our difficulties, God is only perfecting His masterpiece.<\/p>\n

God made the world and then He came to change it. As an artist, He creates us to be masterpieces full of His love and grace. \u00a0Sometimes, racked by grief and despair, we impede God\u2019s refining.\u00a0 And when we stop short, things seem extremely unjust.<\/p>\n

Difficulties are part of the masterpiece we are…the opportunity to learn to see life not as it is, but as it will be.\u00a0 The world provides darkness with its heartbreaking ways.\u00a0 God knows every part of our masterpiece \u2013 even those dripped heavy with pain.<\/p>\n

Make no mistake; there are times we need to grieve deeply.\u00a0 But with God\u2019s strength, in time, we can take a step back, examine the masterpiece God is creating in us and fall deeply, passionately in love with the Creator.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I stopped dead in my tracks – sadness washing over me, pain searing my heart, helplessness booming in my chest. Lily and I decided to enjoy the brilliant morning sun with a walk through the \u00a0neighborhood.\u00a0 All was well until I saw it \u2013 a lost dog poster. How miserable his owners must be!\u00a0 Lily […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3,5],"tags":[9,13,16,48,23,24,27,36],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/myrawells.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/myrawells.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/myrawells.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myrawells.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myrawells.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=493"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/myrawells.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/myrawells.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myrawells.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myrawells.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}