Gold mining

I'm sure many people wonder - what do you do when life throws changes, and challenges at you, that you didn't initiate...

When every part of you aches, your heart breaks over and over, so many misunderstandings - and there's emptiness in so many once treasured memories, photographs, conversations, moments....

Sometimes it feels like we are just like onions.... made of gold.  You peel back one layer, and you just find more gold underneath.  Hidden gold, beauty that only a Creator could put there.



The same goes for the coal...  You peel back a layer of pain and ugliness, and you just seem to find another layer of the 'stuff'.  Stuff.... sorrow, grief, pain, wrong dealt to us by others, wrong that is a consequence of our own choices.  Wrong perceptions of ourselves, wrong perceptions of others.  There's so much 'stuff.'

[caption id="attachment_55" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="He holds my coal in the palm of His hands....."][/caption]

This past year I have been on a journey.  I have seen some parts of me that have been very ugly.  I have faced some very deep pain that has been imbedded in me from a long time ago.

Thankfully, the journey has been led by someone who is far greater than myself.

I've discovered that God is part of a great exchange.  He doesn't want to let us live in our pain.  Sometimes we can think that we have it all together, and then another layer gets peeled back.  Ouch.



He is wholeness.  He is life.  That is what He has for us.  He is my Daddy - and He's good.  All the time.

I have learnt that a battle shared is a battle won.  Victory was never meant to be one person's alone.  We are made to stand with each other and lead each other to victory.

You never know the depths someone is being taken to through lifes circumstances.  If we all got a glimpse of each other's pain, we'd be a lot more patient with each other.

[caption id="attachment_57" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Gold mining - commonly done in rivers and water"][/caption]

Recently, I have decided to, and made a conscious effort to see the gold in people.  I want to peel back one layer of gold, and find another.  I want to honour people for who they are, not who they are not. 

[caption id="attachment_58" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Coal mining - usually done underground in caves"][/caption]

I have chosen (against my will many times) to speak good of people, when I could find many valid bad things to say.

I create life with my words, and my actions.  I also create death.

When coal is mined - then burned; it covers everything around it in soot.  We could all go hunt for coal, BURN it - create smoke so everyone can see it and many can feel it...

Gold just doesn't get burnt.

I think the world would be a different place if we all went gold mining.

[caption id="attachment_59" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="The world is full of gold, if we just look for it-"][/caption]