I remember when I was younger reading the footprints poem. Places in the sand marking whether the Lord had carried me through the troubles of life or walked with me side by side.  I remember reading over this poem finding it beautiful and yet maybe in a way utterly missing all that this could mean to me.

When I read the poem I was left with a thought, "Why wouldn't Christ want to carry me through all the troubles I face in this lifetime?"  Isn't that a sign that He loves me?  In particial, I am right..it is the mercy and love of Jesus Christ when we are carried through a difficutly.  Yet, my understanding was limited.  If Christ's carrying us means He loves us, then does that mean that all the times where my feet walked out the steps of my troubles, Christ didn't love me?

For many years of my life I warred deeply in this troubling feeling. I lived like a pendulem. My mindset was, if all was going well in life, God loved me, but if things were not going well, then I had angered God and I was inturn being punished for it.  Christ's love is not failed the way human love is!!  We try to be unconditional, and in some cases, we do succeed, as much as a human can, but never once have we offered the same calibur of love to others or ourselves as Jesus has for us.  His love is not based upon a merit system. His love not based on whether you offer it in return to Him.  Instead, Christ's love is based on a choice, a nature, so in unison with WHO Christ is that He can be nothing less!!!

The times when we are carried through troubles as opposed to walking the trials out side by side with Jesus, seem a moving target at points in life, doesn't it?  The minute you think that you've decided just when Christ is going to carry through a situation, He will cause you to walk it out. Is this due to His feeling the name to toy with our emotions? No, honestly, it is not. Instead it is the Wisdom of the Lord and His understanding that complacency within the human heart is very easy to come upon.  If we KNEW that we weren't really going to give much effort towards something and yet we were going to have fantastic results, we might easily become less invested in our relationship with Jesus.

Nothing that Christ Jesus ever does is an action of impulse.  Each of His actions are meant for the betterment of us in life. The fault with this thought, WE can't see what He sees, can we?  From the outside....it just translates many times to the feeling that Christ is being cruel or not caring. 

If I told you that I want to start running marathons, you would say that's great...how long do you run right now? If I answered, "I don't run", wouldn't you find it ridiculous that I wanted to start running marathons? Preparation would be an essential in order that my goal could be achieved, right? Well, each of us have asked some pretty BIG things from God in life, haven't we??  We too have to have preparation times for what we've asked to be apart of. It isn't cruelty from the Lord that causes Him to walk out some of our troubles side by side with Him.  Instead, it's a loving action of Christ knowing what it is going to take to be prepared to fulfill the dreams of our hearts. In a way, you are investing in your future self.  Allowing your future self to become more prepared to live our in reality what only your heart's dreams have envisioned thus far.

Looking back more in life now. The footprints that my feet have made in the sands of my life are many, but each of those prints have written across them a history that I have built with the Lord Jesus Christ. None of them have been easy, but they have caused me to learn so much about my loving Lord Jesus Christ.  They are priceless to me. Pastor Daniella