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Tag Archives: circumstances

The Uncomfortable Place

23 Sunday Feb 2014

Posted by Tiffany Haney in Uncategorized

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

awkward, challenge, challenges, circumstances, conflict, diamond, environment, faith, grow, growth, patience, pearl, potential, pressure, stage, transformation, transition, trials, uncomfortable

I’m here again. A place I know, but I try not to visit. An area I’ll try to walk around in a fruitless attempt to avoid. Unlike a child at Christmastime dreaming of sugarplums, I envision a one-way ticket to “Anywhere But Here.” It’s one of the reasons I’ve been away and not posting as much. I’ve entered my own Twilight Zone I’d like to call the Uncomfortable Place. It’s not a pretty destination. Sometimes it’s a place that brings stinging tears to my eyes and more often a prayer on my lips. I’m in a spiritual press, with my desires and wishes ground out so that His will can be revealed.

A place of growth rarely is comfortable. Look at any pictures from your childhood and the gap-toothed smile or gangly legs greet you in all their awkward splendor. But it wasn’t the end of development, just the beginning actually. Growing often hurts, rife with unexpected turns and challenges along the way.

When you’re stretched in weak, unfamiliar areas of your life, growth is the best thing to come out of it. Often the natural work of God’s creation mimics the same process humans go through. One such wondrous example is pearls. Pearls are so precious in all their iridescent beauty. They are gemstones that occur when something unnatural invades an oyster’s environment. A grain of sand or floating food finds its way between the two shells of an oyster and as it builds a layer around itself to protect its existent, a gorgeous pearl is created. Without this disturbance to a natural environment, potential can’t be released. Irritation must occur to give birth to something new in the earth.

pearls

It’s believed diamonds are formed in extreme conditions, buried deep under the surface, heated thousands of degrees, squeezed under the pressure of 725,000 pounds per square inch, and then brought to the surface to cool.

I sometimes feel a bit unsure during this process, as if my Heavenly Father is holding my hands as I walk forward like a toddler just gaining her mobility. Each day he tells me to take another step forward and the way opens before me as I go. And I discover new things about myself — strength, confidence, gifts I wouldn’t know I had otherwise. And I’m grateful for an opportunity to be used and transformed to His Glory and Honor. Without His touch, His guidance I am weak, silly and immature. I know one day I’ll look back on this time and see more clearly the work of His hands.

“My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations;
knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that you may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.” James 1:2-4

crosspearls

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My Not-So-Random Life

29 Monday Oct 2012

Posted by Tiffany Haney in Uncategorized

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

chance, circumstances, faith, fate, future, gaming, God, health, life, living, luck, mental-health, random, spirituality

Growing up in America, I was told through a number of influences that life events happen based on chance, luck, fate or a random set of circumstances. Sure I bought into it. And the gravity of life can still try to convince me that things “just happen.” But my faith and my life experiences are so intertwined that I know for myself that my future is not based on the whim of some distant higher being. In my younger days, I had a dizzying number of traumatic episodes occur. I can’t say I pondered all the time about why things were happening. Mainly because I had to keep up with the pace of living. Then there were times as the tide ebbed and then flowed again I was questioning the reasoning behind it all.

But I also started to see that the people who had been whisked out of my life were only appointed for a certain period of time. We both gifted each other with precious lessons we needed to learn. Whether the relationships were healthy or toxic, it was all for my maturity. From each guy that I’ve dated or co-workers I’ve had difficulties dealing with, it was on purpose. Even losing people through death has strengthened my inner core and increased my sensitivity toward others in pain. So now as 2012 comes to a close, I am intensely aware that each area of my life is not random. Where I live, work, and worship–all are divinely ordered. The friendships I have and the family I was born into are all used to grow me up, encourage me, or reinforce my need to only rely on the constancy of my God for all the areas of my not-so-random life. Can you honestly say that your life has been a roll of the dice?

Preparing for the Next Season

13 Saturday Oct 2012

Posted by Tiffany Haney in Uncategorized

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

change, circumstances, environment, future, phase, preparation, prepare, ready, season

The past few years I’ve noticed something at the end of summer. Around August, squirrels begin to get ready for the winter. Quickly they begin to hunt around for food to “squirrel” away in the ground for later use when food becomes scarce. As time passes into fall, I’ve observed more and more of these little critters out and about, becoming furiously intent on preparing for the season to come. Without making necessary preparations they will surely perish. It’s rather fascinating how God places an instinct in these creatures to ready for a time that is not yet. The colder weather speaks to the squirrel and the bear. In the Arctic region, many animals have a change in fur color for camouflage from predators.

So I wonder how many opportunities do we miss or are ill-prepared to handle because we didn’t take the necessary steps to thrive in a different environment. I’ll admit I haven’t been the best in seasons before. And though God’s grace has helped me through those seasons, I would much rather use that grace for other occasions. Currently I am in a season of preparation. It happened right under my nose years ago in very small increments and now that the puzzle pieces are coming together I am becoming more sensitive for the necessity to be ready for the next level in my life. Sometimes I have lagged in energy, procrastinated or was just plain too busy with obligations to make room for this change. But my circumstances, my very environment move me to keep going, keep pressing and making room and space for opportunities so I can move smoothly to the next phase of my life. Let’s not fall asleep when we should be working toward the future that is waiting for us–our lives depend on it.

Arctic Fox

Arctic Fox with Winter Fur

Arctic Hare

Arctic Hare with Winter Fur

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