New and Unimproved...But Wait...

In order to better understand the "Adventure" that I am on - I have spent some time over the last week or so reading on Cancer Support Group websites. I have learned so much. Some of what I learned(maybe more than some) was not very good. In fact- I told my husband that some of the people had said that they were different than they were before cancer. That they still have issues with remembering words and things, some shared how they still did not have feelings in their hands and/or feet- and this was months after chemo was over. So I had said - ok so I will be - New and Unimproved.... then I thought no - because God is working on me so much that - in the worlds eyes- I might be unimproved - maybe even worse for ware - but in the eyes of my loving heavenly Father - I will be the New and Improved - Me... the one He meant for me to be..at least closer to who He meant me to be.  

 

The devotional in my "Streams in the Desert" book today - spoke on this very topic. And since it said it so much better than I could explain - I thought I would share it too. Enjoy!!!
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I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth

Isaiah 58:14

Those who fly through the air in airships tell us that one of the first rules they learn is to turn their ship toward the wind, and fly against it. The wind lifts the ship up to higher heights. Where did they learn that? They learned it from the birds. If a bird is flying for pleasure, it goes with the wind. But if the bird meets danger, it turns right around and faces the wind, in order that it may rise higher; and it flies away towards the very sun.
Sufferings are God's winds, His contrary winds, sometimes His strong winds. They are God's hurricanes, but, they take human life and lift it to higher levels and toward God's heavens.
You have seen in the summer time a day when the atmosphere was so oppressive that you could hardly breathe? But a cloud appeared on the western horizon and that cloud grew larger and threw out rich blessing for the world. The storm rose, lightning flashed and thunder pealed. The storm covered the world, and the atmosphere was cleansed; new life was in the air, and the world was changed.
Human life is worked out according to exactly the same principle. When the storm breaks the atmosphere is changed, clarified, filled with new life; and a part of heaven is brought down to earth.
--Selected
Obstacles ought to set us singing. The wind finds voice, not when rushing across the open sea, but when hindered by the outstretched arms of the pine trees, or broken by the fine strings of an Aeolian harp. Then it has songs of power and beauty. Set your freed soul sweeping across the obstacles of life, through grim forests of pain, against even the tiny hindrances and frets that love uses, and it, too, will find its singing voice.
--Selected

Be like a bird that, halting in its flight,
Rests on a bough too slight.
And feeling it give way beneath him sings,
Knowing he hath wings.