REPLACEMENTS

There are certain things in life you just can never replace. You can replace time. However it was spent, you can not go back and replace it with different seconds.

I can sure think of the times in life I wish that was an option. Because there are the times when heart ache came that was undeserved.

It wasn't a punishment. It wasn't because of some choice made that was wrong either. It is just part of the circumstances of life that fall upon every soul.

And even though we can't replace those moments, for the follower of Christ life is full of hope. For the times when in Heaven we no longer have to worry about such things.

It is so hard at times to not feel cheated in life when one is deprived or feels deprived of things that you feel you deserve. Or that others possess, but elude you.

Such feelings are natural if you are suffering. To deny them is worse than to admit them. But the important thing is to take them to the Lord.

That is the joy that only come through honesty. One can not sit down and lie about how we feel to the Lord and expect to have any peace.

As long as we harbor those negative resentments His spirit can never give us the hope for the future.

In prayer and dreams He can speak to us in visions that help to see that there is more blessings in eternity than now. That may not always ease the sadness, but it can bring hope.

Then again there are so many times when life is other than a reflection of how God cares about us. The prosperity advocates imply otherwise.

So they engender this sense of how we can have our heaven in this life. A wonderful fantasy, but no necessarily the truth.

And we never embrace how it is a greater blessing when what we are lacking comes in eternity than now. That can be easy to forgot.

I sit today at the far edge of the times when life was only misery. The past few years have brought changes that have given my life new meaning and purpose.

It is hardly perfect, but I do cherish how it has made a change in ways that has made life more satisfying. Not that it means perfect.

But at the same time I have seen how others who once prospered now are in the midst of valleys. It doesn't make me feel a reason to boast, just helps me rejoice when life is a time we can all savor for the changes and praise the Lord, for the replacement of tears.