Velvet Vice

Friends, what do you do when life is dark and difficult? If we looked at how many of us responded to the last year and covid, it seems drinking alcohol, baking bread, and watching Netflix is a common response. Last week, was a dark and difficult week for our family. One of those brutal weeks where crisis after crisis seemed to be happening in our home. Each night my husband and I looked at each other, almost in disbelief of all that was going on. It wasn’t one event or one person. It was as if all the things were happening to all of the people in our family and it just wouldn’t let up. And when I say “all the things”, we were facing serious situations, the very real and very hard struggles of life. Tuesday? Crisis. Wednesday? Crisis. Thursday? Crisis. By that evening, I had nothing left. The tears I’d been holding back all week hit the surface. And if I’m being honest, I had a moment, I don’t even know if I was sad, angry, exhausted or all of the above, where I felt a little let down by God. Why was our family getting hit so hard?

No one likes a tough season. When you get the bad news or something happens, I don’t know anyone who is thankful or says “I’m so glad to be going through this.” When I see my kids facing the hard things in life, when they’re struggling and going through it, it’s so much harder than going through something myself. I can tell them it’s going to be ok, but they don’t know that yet. I can tell them how much God loves them, how God will use absolutely everything they’re experiencing, that He is unwaveringly for them, but they don’t know that yet either. God is allowing, what I heard beautifully described last week as a “velvet vice of circumstances” to get their attention. 

God cares about our souls. He knows how empty the things we often value in this world are. He knows when we’re on a path that will hurt us, that will take us in a direction that is not for our good. That’s when the velvet vice of circumstances begins. I distinctly remember not only my velvet vice moment but also when the vice turned into what felt like a sledgehammer (it’s what happens if you’re not paying attention/listening/or happen to be particularly stubborn as was my case). At the start, God tapped me lovingly on the shoulder saying, “hey sweetie, this isn’t good.”. I didn’t listen, kept living my life, focused on the things of this world. As my marriage headed into trouble, God tapping me again “hey sweetie, are you noticing things are getting worse? Why don’t we talk about it?”. Me, oblivious to the tap, in denial and trusting my marriage was going to be ok. Still not changing my ways. As things worsened significantly, God lovingly placing his hands on my shoulders “sweetie, I know you’re hurting, but there’s more to this than you realize. You’re more lost than you realize. I want to free you of the things you’re holding onto that aren’t good for you.”  

My loving, unwaveringly faithful, and powerful God, allowed me to experience what felt like crushing, significant loss in all I held dear. Relationships, job, friends, health. Brokenness, both in how I was living and what I was experiencing. Deep agonizing pain, as I turned to him and trusted him, led to new life, purpose, joy. Joy, unlike anything I’d ever known or experienced. As my children are going through their own velvet vices of circumstance now, this is the truth I’m holding onto. Who God is. What he does with our pain and circumstances. How the dark and difficult pain, in God’s hands, is not the end. It is not where we stay. It is a transition point and a new beginning. “See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.” (Isaiah 43:19) 

Friends, is there something you’re experiencing, something painful that is hurting you? Would you be willing to sit with God and ask him about it? I encourage you to carve out some quiet time. Bring that situation to God. Take the above verse and see where God is drawing your eye. What words seem to stand out? From there, ask him about those words. “God, what is it you’re telling me? What do you want me to know?” 

The transition from pain to peace only begins when you invite God into it. Allow him to speak to you, to speak to your heart, to show you what new thing he’s doing and the way he’s making for you in the wilderness.

If we can be praying for you, please know we’d be honored to do so. Simply email blog@calvarylg.com.

Blessing you with new life, new hope, peace and joy in our Lord and Savior Jesus.