Psalms 46:1-3
God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging.

Proverbs 15:31-32
Whoever heeds life-giving correction will be at home among the wise. Those who disregard discipline despise themselves, but the one who heeds correction gains understanding.

I wonder if these two passages aren’t tied closer together than they appear. We won’t fear when our earth is shattered and our mountains crumble, when the “solids” of our life get turned upside down and what we know isn’t anymore. I’m not being like a snowflake here; sometime life just gets rough. I wonder how much of turbulence and destruction is the life giving correction that He gives us. Quite a bit I think. Like all of it.

When this world gets to be so crazy that nothing makes sense, when what you know is no longer true, that what was there/who was there is no longer, there is left the one eternal truth. We’re loved liked we can’t understand by a God that is 100% pure love and justice. It’s the eternal truth that never changes. It’s the foundation that never, ever moves.

Yet, we have to choose whether we build on that foundation. We have to choose if we see the correction for our good our and learn from it, or if we see the correction is unfair, hareful, whaa, whaa, whaa. Is it an opportunity to rebuild or a time to stew in “whoa is me”.

Colossians 3:1-2
Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.

We will pass, the earth will pass, the stars will pass. God won’t. The things above, the life changing paradigm shift, the fruit of the spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, make their own earth, their own mountains. Mercy and grace. In us. In you. In me.

No one said that life on this earth was going to be easy, nor should it be really. Challenges bring character, strength and resiliency. They bring understanding. They bring compassion, empathy, and sympathy. They bring depth and wisdom. Facing God’s challenges to us with him, in His strength, in His way. It’s anti-snowflake.