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Of all the terms I could use to describe God, three immediately come to mind: Kind, Gentle, and Weird. In the past years and recent months in my journey with God, I have come to see Him as the kindest and most gentle being I know. I cannot begin to recount the many ways God has actively
sought me and touched my life with these three aspects of His character. I have actually started  keeping a running tab on this in my “Kindness Journal.”  I’m keeping track of what God is doing to show me just how kind and gentle He really is.

Since I started this He has not failed to produce a subject for an entry; and I’m not just talking about something like, “This morning a dear, sweet lady slowed down to allow me onto the interstate while I was late for work. How we need more people like that!!!"  No, I’m talking about displaying His kindness in ways that drew me to my knees in worship.

However, as God has revealed Himself to me, I began to notice a pattern to His behavior; or a method to His madness as it sometimes seem. As I learn of the magnitude and greatness of God's love, I’m also learning that He has got to be the weirdest Guy on the block. Now why would I say that about God? I say it because of the ways in which He chooses to manifest His goodness
to me.

One thing I’m currently learning is that to authentically experience the Joy of the Lord, it is necessary to be in the middle of a joyless situation. To learn of His peace, we must be in a pressure packed situation.  You see, things like God’s peace and joy are there for a reason. They are there because we need them and often they are absent in the various situaitons we find ourselves.  These Godly qualities cannot be found by external means.  They are solely birthed from within through trust and surrender to Christ. It is only by the external absence of something that we learn the value of its internal presence.

Psalm 23 teaches us that God does not remove us from the Valley of the Shadow of Death;  He  walks with us through it. I have often wished that He would remove me from specific situations; and yet, He didn't.  Truly, there has never been a time when He did not help me through it. Like Daniel in the Lion’s Den, or his friends in the Fiery Furnace, or Joseph and his nearly 17 year stint, falsely accused in prison, or Jesus in the Tomb; God never rescued them from their circumstances. His presence sustained them in the midst of it.  It appears that it is only IN and THROUGH our dark hours that we come to value the Light of His presence.

Whatever God is seeking to teach us, He often uses the very opposite of it as the backdrop for a stage upon which we learn it. In whatever situation you find yourself, I challenge you to challenge God.  Challenge Him to show you His goodness in that situation. Then, allow Him time to reveal His unique qualities that have been there all along.