I met a stranger in the most unlikely of places who began to tell me her life’s story. She started by asking me my opinion of a designer fringed handbag she was thinking about purchasing. Her personal style is to dress more like the 60’s, a Hippie era of peace signs, bright colors and bands like the Beatles and Jimmy Hendrix. She wanted to stay true to who she is regardless of what’s going on in the Fashion Industry even if fringe was going out of style.
We were able to connect on an emotional level and she felt quite comfortable opening up to tell me her story. She started by sharing the fact that Jesus is her lord and savior and that he saved her from many negative life experiences.
Her Story
At a very young age, she was placed in a mental institution for a short time. As she grew older, she was in an abusive relationship and finally ended it in order to save her life. To add to her tragic life story, she was almost raped by a complete stranger. She asked me to open my mouth and share her story because she attributes her new-found life of happiness due to the saving grace of Jesus.
I felt so sorry, as I listened to her story, but there is hope in the end, she found Jesus and was happy filled with life again.
We are not alone
Everyone has a story to tell, a tapestry filled with pain and suffering and some experiences we would rather choose to forget. We believe we are the only ones having such a difficult time. However we are not alone in the agony of life. When you hear another persons story, worst than what you’re presently experiencing, I don’t know about you, but I just want to shut up, no need to complain and thank God for his unmerited favor.
There is another side where love and happiness abides woven in the midst of all that we’ve experienced along the way. But although this tapestry is tattered and torn and perhaps weathered from the many storms, it survived and made us all into the persons we are today.
We are men and women of character not defeated by our stories as we continue to endure our life experiences. There is always a new chapter to be written of hope, lessons learned and change that brings light in spite of darkness which will lose in the end.
Nuggets of Truth: More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
Romans 5:3-5
Scattered Thoughts in Life 