Puzzling, isn't it?

This last week I completed my seventh novel of Tamera Alexander.  I believe, she has officially moved into the number one spot.  My new favourite author.  This last book is titled Beyond This Moment.

I blogged about a different book of Tamera's here that I read many months ago.    She has an incredible way of touching my heart from her stories.  I wonder if I ever get a chance to meet her in person if we would be kindred spirits.

The story takes place in the same mountain town of Timber Ridge in 1876. This love story is between the local Sheriff and the new teacher arriving from Georgia.  Only the young teacher is harbouring a deep secret.  One that she can't keep hidden for long. Even though she knows the truth will be revealed in due time, she never expected to meet a Sheriff who will challenge the choices she's made.

The main characters in Alexander's book are caught in a dichotomous mix of emotion and rational thought.  (Italics represents an inside joke - you will need to read the story to figure it out).  Sometimes when we make poor choices in our lives
we can't imagine a way for our loving heavenly Father to bless us.  Or even help us out of the predicament our poor choice has created. That is precisely what our Heroine, Molly is up against.

As the story ramps up we find her uttering a prayer that I hope I can learn from.  She asks for the courage to follow God's lead - no matter where it takes her.

That is a powerful prayer.

Courage is always a good thing to pray for, but courage to follow the leading of the Saviour when we can't see past our dark tunnel is a mighty prayer.  A mighty hard one too.

I have found myself standing in similar shoes as Molly this week.  I am at a fork in my road.  One way seems like the easier path but I have no peace about it.  Then the alternate route is a rockier path where there is great potential for someone I love dearly to be hurt.  That is the path that 'seems' more right.

However I'm questioning God.  How can I justify hurting someone special to me?  How can God want me to take that road?  See, like Molly, the path I have found myself on is the natural consequences for a bad choice I made once.  So it only seems right for me to take the consequences and work through them. Yet when there is an innocent sacrifice on the alter I cannot step forward with ease.

My bad choice was made almost twenty-two years ago. (Sometimes our decisions carry lifelong results.)  Just like Molly, when I made my choice I had no idea that just around the proverbial bend was a man worth waiting for.  God sees our whole, completed puzzle - but we only get a piece at a time.  And I find that none too often the piece you've been given doesn't seem to fit anywhere in sight.  So I remind myself that the puzzle is God's and there are no missing pieces.  It isn't meant to be an impossible task, it is meant to be a lesson in faith and courage. Courage to follow the leading of the Lord no matter what the picture looks like in the end.

Shame from our choices can fragment our lives.  But God wants to come and put those pieces back together to form the beautiful picture of you He always envisioned.  So whatever your secret painful choice was (or is) let the Healer make it right.  He can be the God of your everything - everything beautiful and every ugly.

Here is my tribute to her fantastic novel.  If I could add a soundtrack it would be this.

May the God of heaven reveal to you how deep and how wide His love for you is.  And how there is no dark corner or wrong road you can ever go where He will not be - your everything.