You don't need strength to be strong.

I often forget that, even in this shattered world, we are not alone.

There is darkness around us but there is Light within us. He hasn't left us without Himself.

There is this Willy Wonka quote that just popped into my head which seems incredibly relevant all the sudden. "We are the music makers. We are the dreamers of dreams."

I think our God calls us to dream. And I think a lot of the time He brings us great joy by shattering those dreams. Shattered dreams can feel like failure and bring deep guilt, and feel pressure to deny that we ever had them in the first place.We can't lie to each other about pain. Hopelessness. Doubt. When we lie, we are saying that the Lord was not working in the details of the story.

I've written about this before - the power of our own stories. But I can't get it out of my head. So here I am again with the same words and the same heart, urging myself and the people I love to crack themselves open. To share their stories. Because when we don't we say a lot more about our disbelief in God than we realize.

This Sunday my pastor shared a little of his wife's story. He read a blog post that his wife wrote a year ago, not long after she was re-diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. She wrote of the Lord's sovereignty and love, and her love for Him even in her illness. Her words were beautiful and real and I couldn't help but be thankful for the Lord's pursuit of her heart. I am encouraged to know from her faith that the darkness in this world does not win with a God like ours.

My pastor's wife also leads music at our church, and I couldn't take my eyes off her during the last two songs as she sang of the Lord's faithfulness and the hope of eternity with Him. It was like a punch in the face. I left fully convinced that the pain and sickness and hopelessness in this world  speaks more about His love for me than anything else. When this world fails, we have lost nothing. This shattered world was never meant to satisfy.