pots of GOLD

One of my girlies recently posted something on their facebook which made me both want to cry and jump for excitement, in the end I did a little of both. Her status read;


"if you want the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow you have to be willing to sit in the rain."
  
This led me to ask several questions, 

• do we have specific pots of gold in mind? 
• if we know what gold we want, what kind of rain would we have to sit in? 
• are we willing to sit in the rain, is the gold really that desirable for us to be willing to really hash it out while its down-pouring? 
• what if we don't actually know what the pot of gold is? 
• what kind of rain do we really have to sit through? I mean as much as the weather man tries to predict, how often does he predict light showers and it rains so much that flooding occurs? 

I think the bigger question we really ask ourselves that gets us in trouble is "how can I get the pot of gold without sitting through the rain?" Sometimes we want all the benefits and joys of life without having to actually do anything to get the pot of gold. I definitely believe that sometimes God just blesses us because we are His sons and daughters, and gives us pots of gold just because! (those are some of my favorites) 

However, other times He asks us to live in obedience and to work and walk into the storms, without predictions of what the weather will actually be like. These are the hardest and sometimes most painful walks, and sometimes the longest walks. The walks where you're so wet and tired that it hurts to move. The walks where you're like "Screw it! Who cares what's at the end of the storm because the storm is never going to freaking end! I'm DONE!" 

A long time ago God made a promise that never again would He send a flood that would destroy the world. 

As for me and God, and what I've learned about grief, I believe this promise of God's applies to grief too. Never again will He send a flood so great that it destroys us. Believing that promise while we're walking through the hardest most painful storms of this life can seem like the most impossible thing to trust, but if we did trust that promise of His, then we know that the rainbow will come, and with the rainbow comes the pot of gold. 

I said earlier that some of my favorite God memories are from the blessing He has given to me just because I am his daughter, I am the daughter of the Most High God!!! 

However, my absolute favorite God moments are moments within my journey with grief. God and I have hashed out some pretty rough and rocky things all surrounding grief, days that I used to want to forget. Yet something happened, the things I most desperately wanted to forget, have now become reminders of my walks with God in grief, which have now become ebenezers to my rainbows and pots of gold. I need reminders that the rainbows did come, and that we (God & I) survived  the storm. 

Just a reminder sometimes there is a stillness after the storm, a place of quiet and abiding that comes before we see the rainbow. And sometimes we hangout in the rays of glory within the rainbow for awhile before we realize and receive our pot of gold....its all very much a process....I know, that awful p-word, but there it is, I think its here to stay, but only so we can continue on journeys into freedom!

I hope and pray that today you are reminded of the rainbows and pots of gold your heart so desperately longs after. May God send His spirit to move in you and remind you that every ounce of courage and strength you need to walk into the storm is possible and already in your possession, and that you will courageously take those steps towards your rainbow out of trust and desire for pots of gold and freedom!