My God is a faithful God!

Here I am again!

So much has happened lately, and I have yet to put up photos of recent events, mostly because all the pictures are sitting in my office computer, and I am currently at home on a laptop that is running on what feels like the memory of a goldfish. So please bear with me, dear friends. Life has been wonderfully busy.

And speaking of memory, it is not just the laptop that is struggling. I have been so mentally stretched lately that I have become more forgetful than ever. The funny thing is my mum is going through the exact same thing. The difference is she at least has the excuse of age catching up with her. I, on the other hand, have no such luxury, and honestly, it is a little concerning to be having memory lapses at this age.

But I suppose that says a lot about the kind of pressure young working people are navigating today. We carry so much.

If my mum ever reads this, I can already hear her saying, "Nowadays young people have all kinds of excuses! Do a little bit of work and lose memory!" And she would not be wrong. Though I have a feeling that one day when we become parents ourselves, we will find ourselves saying the exact same things our parents once said to us.

But in the middle of all this busyness and the speed at which life seems to be moving, something else has been quietly happening beneath the surface. The messages I have been hearing at church and the things unfolding around me – all of it has been stirring something in me spiritually, mentally and emotionally. I sense God nudging me and saying, 'Hey girl, time to stop being stagnant. Let's move things up a notch."

Then yesterday, I received news that a close family friend had been diagnosed with stage four cancer. I sat there stunned for a moment. My immediate thought was, "God, what are you doing? This is the third person I know this year facing cancer. " I found myself sitting with that for a while, quietly asking why, wondering what His purpose could possibly be in something like this.

But last night my family went to visit him, and what happened completely turned things around for us. We went with the intention to encourage him. We left encouraged by him instead.

He was so strong spiritually. His faith and trust in God were unwavering. He shared that he knows God is faithful and that it is through the darkest valleys that we come to truly understand how great our God is when we finally walk out the other side. I left genuinely moved and reminded of what real faith looks like in the face of the unimaginable.

Then today, a friend and I caught up briefly over MSN. She shared that she too had been going through things lately, and so had I. But somehow instead of unloading our problems onto each other, we ended up encouraging one another. I shared how every valley God walks us through does not just test us; it equips us. It gives us stronger tools to face higher mountains and deeper valleys ahead.

And I believe that wholeheartedly. God has never once walked away from me in the middle of a trial. He has always been right there, guiding and teaching through every single step, even when I was too caught up in the storm to notice. Every single time I have come through something, I have come out the other side with a deeper gratitude and a fresh reminder of just how faithful He is.

Even when I murmur and complain, and I do, the moment I sit down and truly surrender what I am carrying, the weight always looks smaller than it did before. Because I serve a God who is bigger than every single one of my problems. And not one of them is ever too difficult for Him.

All we have to do is let Him in and let Him lead.

Trials are not enemies of faith. They are the very ground on which God proves His faithfulness.