Daylight is Coming

To those going through the valley and shadow of death, hear this word: Weeping will last through some dark, awful nights—and in that darkness you will soon hear the Father whisper, “I am with you. I cannot tell you why right now, but one day it will all make sense. You will see it was all part of my plan. It was no accident. It was no failure on your part. Hold fast. Let me embrace you in your hour of pain.” David Wilkerson ~ When All Means Fail (from his blog post on the day of his sudden death)


If you have ever cried yourself to sleep at night it is an overwhelming feeling that seems to last forever. A feeling of hopelessness surrounds you as it seems like you’re all alone in your own little world. As dark as things may seem at the time daylight is always around the corner as the moment eventually passes.


It’s in these moments that we need to just be still before the Lord and listen for that whisper in the night, “I am with you. I am with you.” One of our first reactions when we think God is near enough is to hit Him up with the “Why me?” question. Instead of trusting that God will see us through and that He knows what He is doing we instantly want the answers to our question of “why?” It reminds me of the grandkids when they were little. It didn’t matter what was going on the question of “Why Grandma?” always came up.


Often I couldn’t answer their question because not all situations or circumstances have an answer to why it happened. Like it or not they had to trust my judgment that I knew what I was doing and the reason why didn’t matter. We need to do the same with God. As much as I wanted to know why I got epilepsy, why I lost my job, why did it have to be me who couldn’t have more kids, why, why, why it wasn’t for me to know at the time. If I would have been listening at the time I probably would have heard God tell me, “Karen, I can’t tell you why just now but some day it will make sense.” And you know what? Twenty plus years after I was cured as the daylight appeared around the corner I can see many answers to my “Why me?” saga.


One of the reasons was to get the “Why me’s” out of the way in order to not be overwhelmed by my diagnosis of cancer. What I got out of dealing with my epilepsy, the strength and trust I learned were the very tools I needed in my pocket to see me through my breast and bone cancer that showed up more than twenty years later.


Thanks to lessons already learned I’m finding it easier to hold on fast instead of setting up shop to throw my all famous pity parties no one seemed to want to attend but me. Instead of lashing out at God for what was happening to me I find myself welcoming His embrace as I hold on to the source I know is there to walk me through the darkness until daylight shows up.


Remember as kids when your sibling or a friend accidentally hurt you and then they tried to comfort you in your pain you pushed them away. After all they were the ones who caused the pain in the first place. We do that with God way too often. We push Him away accusing Him of being the cause of the pain so we want Him to go away. Boy do we have it wrong. When we are suffering we like to pick an easy target to strike out at and it always seems to be God.


Life happens, pain will come and go. Darkness may be here at the present but daylight is just around the corner. God isn’t out to afflict as many people as He can in an end of the century quota He needs to fill. He is there to see us through these times. They are times of learning to trust, to strengthen our faith, and to get us to grow spiritually as we learn how to get through the night the best possible way we can by hanging on to the hand of the Lord.




More important than “why” is “how” we get through these times in our lives. We can go through fighting to win or go through defeating our own purposes. It’s not all in the answers, its all in our attitude. Daylight is on its way and we need to believe that.

© 2011 Karen J Gillett @ Pencil Marks and Recipes Publishing

Face To Face with God

“God loves you. He loves you so much that He’s allowed this trial to push you to the point where you have no choice but to look to Him.” ~ When Life is Hard by James MacDonald ~


Oh the “T” word, trials! Been there done that and seems like I keep going through them. Just the other day I was thinking about how they work. They say trials draw us closer to God but I was picturing in my mind how that is done. With some people when they are going through trials they tend to turn on God. They get angry with Him for “all the things they are going through.” Others rediscover a God they once ignored. Others get the pleasure of drawing closer to an already close God.


It’s probably safe to say people don’t instantly going running to God with a grin on their face saying, “Oh thank you Lord for this trial. Thank you so much I was getting bored and needed something new to go through.” No what generally happens is the fact that when we go through trials everything seems to be a total upset. Things get wild, crazy, depressing, and tough. Our natural tendency is to turn to a place of safety, a place we can lean against for strength.


For some that place of refuge is alcohol, drugs, sex, food, or other things rather than God. These all being temporary fixes that soon lose their ability to shield us from what we are going through. Eventually they wind up making our trial worse instead of better.


Experience and instincts have showed that God is that secure place we can run to. Not a place to hide or escape to but a place to lean upon. Therefore when life knocks us flat on our backs and we have no other place to look but up that’s where we need to go. However, amazingly enough even then some people will stubbornly lie on the floor of life with their eyes clinched tightly shut still refusing to look to God. As life knocks them down they shout out in anger, “if God really loved me He wouldn’t be allowing this to happen.”


Wow, what a horrible picture we have allowed the world to paint for us regarding God’s love. He’s not the one that puts in the order for X amount of trials to be sent to this person and that. Trials seem to show up on their own in the mailbox of our lives marked “occupant.” Whoever got it got it. Whether we want to admit it or not because of choices we make on our own we are the ones mailing ourselves most of our trials.


When properly handled trials can turn out to be something of worth. I know, you think I’m crazy but they do. Can you honestly say you would have looked to, leaned upon, relied on God as much as you do if it wasn’t for your trials? I ask myself that. I probably never would have been as close to God as I am today if it wasn’t for the trials I had to face in life.


They weren’t there as an “in my face” taunt that God didn’t love me. No they were there to get me to look God in the face so He could tell me how much He loved me. Words followed by the gesture of Him taking by the hand and walking me through each and every trial I was required to attend.


Recently with my diagnoses of cancer I told my sister Robin I felt like God was telling me, “I need to borrow you for a moment.” Where this trial will lead I don’t know but I know God is still looking at me in the face telling me He loves me. The question is am I going to look back and give Him the same the message? My actions will tell. My attitude will reveal the answer as I go face-to-face with God.

© 2011 Karen J Gillett @ Pencil Marks and Recipes Publishing

Difficult Times

“Life is difficult. This is a great truth, one of the greatest truths. It is a great truth because once we truly see this truth, we transcend it. Once we truly know that life is difficult – once we truly understand and accept it – then life is no longer difficult. Because once it is accepted, the fact that life is difficult no longer matters.” by ~ M. Scott Peck The Road Less Traveled

Driving in the winter can be a very wild experience. One day the roads can be good, the next day they can be bad. They can not only go from good to bad in a day they can do it in an instant. Un-expectantly and without warning as we travel down a road something can change in a flash. An icy spot, a running deer, a family of ducks taking an afternoon stroll can in an instant send our car into a tailspin. It’s important that we are prepared the best we can by driving more alertly than hurriedly.

Recently a young girl I know hit two of those things at once. She encountered a deer in the road as well as ice in her path. After walking away from what should have been a fatal accident the officer at the scene told her dad she evidently did everything she was ever taught to correctly handle the situation. It may not have prevented the blood from her wounds but it kept her from being killed.

The best preparation we can do for things like this is to drive as if the whole road was ice and take the necessary precautions ahead of time. In another car accident this snowy season a 16 year old boy who was tired of waiting for those who were driving to slow on the icy mountain road decided he had had enough. Thinking his four-wheel drive was all the precaution he needed to take he proceeded to pass the traffic. Needless to say his actions caused over 5 people to be killed including himself.

The truth that the roads were icy that day was just that, the honest truth. The truth that life is difficult is the honest truth. It’s a great truth that we need to know and accept in our lives so we can take precautions along the way to survive those difficult times. We may not be able to prevent every accident from happening or every difficult situation from doing damage but there is a lot we can do to see that we survive.

Once we’ve accepted the fact that life can be difficult we can walk with ease in the comfort of God’s protective wing. Strolling around paranoid that everything we come up against is going to be complex is not the answer. We need to accept the fact that life is tough but thanks to Jesus we can be tougher. It is with Him that our preparation for those complicated roads in life begins. The time we put into prayer, preparation, and precautions can make the difference in our outcome.

Indeed it’s the truth that 10% of the things that happen to us can’t be prevented but 90% of it can and that is where our responsibility lies. It begins with accepting the fact that life can be tricky but embracing the Lord doesn’t have to be.

Lean on Jesus, you won’t be disappointed. Use those difficult times to draw near to Him, to get acquainted with Him, to discover what a blessing it is to trust in Him. It’s important to remember that life is not a bed of roses that comes without thorns. There will be thorns! There will be thorns!!

However, greater is He that is in us than he that is in the world. Praise the Lord we have Jesus to see us through those difficult times.


© 2009 Karen J. Gillett @ Pencil Marks and Recipes Publishing

Chariot of Choice

“It has been well said that ‘earthly cares are a heavenly discipline. But they are even something better than discipline-they are God’s chariots, sent to take the soul to its high places of triumph. They do not look like chariots. They look instead like enemies, sufferings, trials, defeats, misunderstandings, disappointments, unkindness.” By Hannah Whitall Smith

The escort dream of many girls is to be picked up in a limousine by a handsome prince that treats them as if they were royalty themselves. It makes them feel special, loved, and appreciated. The fancier the carriage the better, like Cinderella on her way to the ball as the world watches. The talk of the town, the school, the neighborhood is on everything they heard about what her escort did for his date. Soon the challenge and desire is out to be the one who snags him for the prom of the future.

The Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6) Himself has put out His own invitation for all to accept. We hear about all the good things He has done for others and we quickly decide He is the one we want as our escort of choice. Dancing in our heads are visions of a Cinderella conversion at the waving of a wand and an elegant chariot type escort to Heaven.

Patiently, no sort of patiently, no impatiently we wait for Him to arrive as we watch transportation after modes of transportation pass us by. “Nope. Nope that can’t be it. No, I wouldn’t want anyone to see me in that!” Soon we sound like Elijah who was looking for God in the earthquake, wind, and fire in 1 Kings 19 when He finally showed up in the gentle breeze or still small voice. With our minds already made up that the carpet that is rolled out for us has to be red we turn our heads away from anything else. Soon we begin to wonder if we have been stood up or passed by.

Often it’s not us who are being stood up but God as we seem to care more about what our chariot of choice should look like instead of our destiny. After all, who would have thought that the option of escorting us to our highest places of triumph would appear like such an enemy? Enemies disguised as our sufferings, trials, defeats, misunderstandings, disappointments, and unkindness. Why? How come? Where is the royal treatment? Where is the love?

Slow down, slow down. The royal treatment is in the invitation, the ticket already paid for through the blood of Christ and the destiny it takes us. Think about it, if it doesn’t matter to us how we get to grandma’s house then why are we so fussy about how we get to our victories in Christ. Some of the most reliable vehicles to get us to those places of triumph for our soul are those hard times.

They get our attention to where there are choices to be made. Not the choice of what kind of carpet or vehicle we are going to wait for but whether we are going to either draw closer to Christ in victory or choose the path of a victim and defeat. Also the choice to take our eyes off ourselves and on to God as we pack our traveling bags with the correct supply of attitude, strength, and maturity.

The love, the love is the fact that you will never travel alone. As I typed on this, this morning God took me through such a journey. His choice of chariot was freezing rain, electricity going out, the phone being disconnected, a serious car accident near my home, and trouble at work. I had to wait for the coach to stop to finish my writing. It gave me the opportunity to look inside my luggage to see what I had packed in my heart. Was I waiting for the carriage of my choice or the one God picked out for me?

I want the one with God’s name on it. The chariot of choice destined for my future prom in Heaven on a journey to meet and see my Prince of preference, Jesus Christ.

Talk neighborhood talk because my date does treat me well. Because of Him I do feel special, loved, and appreciated.



© 2009 Karen J. Gillett @ Pencil Marks and Recipes Publishing