Joy and Sorrow Are This Ocean

Sometimes I get a little freaked out about where I am in life.  I have "hmm" moments when I try to sort out how things got to be the way they are.  Now that might sound like my life is some sort of train wreck or failure.  Not so.  To the contrary, I think my life is probably pretty normal and scores somewhere within the typical curve of the "heartache and happiness" grading scale.  It's just that as I reach different stages in life I'm amazed at all the little plot twists that have happened and are currently beginning to twist.

I'll admit that it can be scary.  It feels weird.  It feels different.  But the thing I always come back to is that even as the breadth of my experience grows, and the scope of my difficulties grows, the power of the Gospel (that is, my current comprehension of it) grows proportionately.  God has always been faithful to supply what I've needed in terms of faith and perseverance, mercy and forebearance.  He's going to get me through this.  And it's going to bring so much glory to His great Name in the end.

There's a wideness in God's mercy I cannot find in my own
And He keeps His fire burning To melt this heart of stone
Keeps me aching with a yearning Keeps me glad to have been caught
In the reckless raging fury That they call the love of God

Now I've seen no band of angels But I've heard the soldiers' songs
Love hangs over them like a banner Love within them leads them on
To the battle on the journey And it's never gonna stop
Ever widening their mercies And the fury of His love

Oh the love of God And oh the love of God The love of God

Joy and sorrow are this ocean And in their every ebb and flow
Now the Lord a door has opened That all Hell could never close
Here I'm tested and made worthy Tossed about but lifted up
In the reckless raging fury That they call the love of God