Beauty for Ashes, Strength for Pain

From comments to my last post, I'm thinking it must be a common feeling--that of plummeting to my certain demise. What a comfort, as Christians to be able to reach out and grab hold of His steady hand. No matter how far away *we* feel from His hand, it is never far but always outstretched to pull us in closer in to Himself so that our eyes become focused on Him alone and not the dizzying waterfall of events that fill our lives. I remember my sister Steph talking about going into the hospital to have her first baby. She said that she felt the natural battle of "fight or flight" going on in her mind and at one point was ready to tell her husband Travis to just grab the bags and they could run away together...away from the pain. Interesting how instinct can move us to make decisions regardless of reasoning. In life, sometimes, there is no "escape". The pain is inevitable. So far, I've run away, hidden, fought back but probably the most popular of my reactions to pain so far has been to hold onto it with the grip of death. What I'm finding though is that God *does* have a way of prying my fingers off of the pain that i hold so tightly, and lifting the burden into His own keeping....and maybe as i let go, that's when he slips a little of His own strength into my hand to take the place of the burden. I hope that by the end of my life, he won't have to pry so hard to force me to let go of my suffering and that my hands will be open for Him to fill with His strength, which is made perfect in my weakness. I was thinking about Isaiah 61 this morning. Beautiful that Jesus would have chosen to read this passage as his first public "sermon":

Isaiah 61
1 The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is upon me,
for the Lord has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to comfort the brokenhearted
and to proclaim that captives will be released
and prisoners will be freed.
2 He has sent me to tell those who mourn
that the time of the Lord’s favor has come,
and with it, the day of God’s anger against their enemies.
3 To all who mourn in Israel,
he will give a crown of beauty for ashes,
a joyous blessing instead of mourning,
festive praise instead of despair.
In their righteousness, they will be like great oaks
that the Lord has planted for his own glory.