Praising through Disappointment

A friend of mine has been dealing with much hurt and disappointment in her life.  Trying to make sense of it has been difficult, and she has cried many tears in the last year.  


I've been following the blog of Joanne Heim, a beautiful woman of God who suffered a stroke on January 11th.  Thousands are praying for her and her family, and there has been much praise lifted up to our sovereign God these past weeks as she shows signs, however small, of coming back!  You will find much humor, wisdom, and inspiration in Joanne's words, and I encourage you to check out her blog at:  www.thesimplewife.typepad.com.


Her husband and friends continue to post updates on her blog daily regarding Joanne's condition. Several of her family and friends are posting some of their favorite past blogs which Joanne wrote, and today's blog spoke to my heart in a special way.  Joanne was speaking of a disappointment her oldest daughter experienced when a weekend  she had planned with a best friend didn't work out.  Her daughter tried to come up with all sorts of ways to make it happen-to force it to work out, desiring to take control over it.  


Joanne wrote how her daughter reminded her of herself--"trying to force things to fit when the answer is no and realizing that to force it means compromising what you really want." And then God laid something on her heart:  Praise for everything.  The bad as well as the good.   
She was reminded of a quote from one of her favorite books, Hinds' Feet on High Places by Hannah Hurnard:  "For DISAPPOINTMENTS accepted with PRAISE always seem to turn into EXTRA-RADIANT BLESSINGS."
And in the book, Winged Life, by the same author, these quotes:
"The secret of the victorious Christian living...is to go through each day praising God for everything--the bad as well as the good." 
"Don't try to hold onto anything in this life, but willingly let go, in order to be able to receive new enrichment from the Lord."
"Everything that is willingly laid down into death will be raised to life again in some more glorious and perfect form."


We've all had times in our life when we were given the chance to put all these words into practice.  It's rarely easy, but God knows best. We have the choice to to praise in the midst of disappointment, and trust him for the outcome. Those things that appear to be seemingly bad to us are part of that best...God's good and perfect will, even when we don't see the whole picture!
In Joanne's words, "It is never hypocrisy to act as we earnestly desire to feel, even though the feeling may be very contrary at the time." 


I plan to share Joanne's words with my friend tonight.