Scribed In Light

Our truth is held within the storms – how life’s hardships bend us, mold us, shape us…and sometimes, break us. If given the choice, would we design a course with no hills, no valleys, no curves, no bridges, no breathtaking views? Would we truly desire a flat, uneventful landscape? One that is predictable, easy, and without struggle?

No. That is the journey we think we want. One with no potholes, hurdles, or hiccups. One of ease and complete with no strenuous efforts.

However, the most beautiful landscapes, the most breathtaking journeys, are shaped by tumultuous terrain – climbing mountains, crossing awe-striking bridges, wandering through stunning valleys, standing in rejuvenating waterfalls carved by force and time. These – are the journeys we often choose for ourselves as a retreat from the everyday mundane and chaos of life. These are the trips we set aside for ourselves and our loved ones to reconnect with our truest selves, and to bask in the bliss of what we know to be the true riches life holds.

Life is no different. It is the storms, the droughts, the heat waves, and the ferocious winds that create our depth, and breathtaking views within our own souls. Offering an escape for others. An oasis. A reprieve of rejuvenation and strength.

S0, why do we view the unforeseen storms of life so differently from the journeys we have planned for ourselves? Often shying from and resenting its presence altogether.

Just as the land is torn, shaped, and refined to create the world’s most stunning landscapes, so too must our spirit’s soil be broken, tilled, and reshaped. Growth requires disruption. A seed does not sprout in unbroken ground- it must be buried, pressed, cracked open, and exposed to both darkness and light.

When hardship comes, we naturally resist it. We cry out, we grieve, we wrestle with the pain. And that is okay – it is human, necessary even. But what is not okay is staying buried in that grief.

Too many people allow storms to steal their light, droughts to dry up their spirit, winds to harden their hearts. They allow suffering to rewrite who they are, etching bitterness, cynicism, and guardedness into their once- vibrant souls. They let pain consume their goodness like a cancer.

But what if suffering isn’t meant to destroy us – but to build us?

Storms Don’t Destroy – They Transform.

It is easy to see pain as a curse, to believe that hardship is punishment, that brokenness is an end. But what if instead, we chose to see it as a process – a divine refining?

• Storms clear away what no longer serves us.
• Droughts force us to seek deeper wells of faith.
• Heat waves burn away our illusions of control, teaching us to surrender.
• Ferocious winds push us to root deeper, to stand stronger.

We are not meant to stay buried in grief, disappointment, or heartbreak. We are meant to rise from it – transformed, strengthened, seasoned, and equipped to carry not only ourselves but others through the same struggles. Like a beacon of guiding light through the darkness. A lighthouse perched upon the most treacherous courses.

Acknowledge God in the breaking.

This is the key. If we miss God in our suffering, we miss the purpose behind it.

Pain without purpose is despair. But pain with purpose is transformation.

Every hardship carries an invitation – to seek Him, to trust Him, to believe that even in our breaking, we are being rebuilt for something greater.

• What if the loss is not an end, but a redirection?
• What if the dissappointment is not rejection, but protection?
• What if the storm is not meant to wash us away, but to cleanse and renew us?

God is not absent in our suffering. He is in the rain, in the wind, in the fire – breaking us open, stripping away what was never meant to stay, and calling forth new growth.

The Choice: Be Consumed or be Changed

Hardship will come. Grief will happen. Pain is inevitable. The question is: Will you let it consume you, or will you let it change you?

You are allowed to grieve, to feel, to sit in the weight of it all. Because it is in the sitting that we acknowledge our pain rather than suppress it. It is in the feeling that we process rather than deny it. And it is in the breaking that we open – to healing, to transformation, to a deeper understanding of ourselves, and others. But you are not meant to stay there. You are meant to rise – to embrace the version of yourself that only suffering could have built.

Beauty is not found in the absence of struggle. It is found in the overcoming.

And you, dear soul, were made to overcome.

So, remember – Just as rugged terrain is shaped by storms, heat, and times our lives are sculpted by the very hardships we often wish to avoid.

• I pray my words today somehow bring you clarity within the role that hardship plays within our growth. How utterly beauty-filled you are by the climb, curves and terrain of your individual life course. How stunning your storms have shaped you. How awe-inspiring your ability is found to be – within rising out of the ashes a refined and truer form of yourself.

So, when the storms rage, do not fear. For just as fire refines gold and pressure forms diamonds, your trials are forging something far greater within you – a strength, a wisdom, a beauty that could not have been shaped without its having occurred.

• As Helen Keller once said:

“Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved.”

And remember the promise of Isaiah 43:2

“When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.“

You were not meant to be defeated by your storms – you were meant to rise through them.

Rise.

Not as you were. But as you were meant to be.

In Light, Love, and Grace,

Tina