To be honest with you, God and I aren’t seeing eye to eye right now.

He’s asking me to do something I don’t want to do.  Actually, He’s telling me.  He’s telling me to completely give up one of the most important friendships I have ever had in my life.

I tried telling God, “No, thank you,” but He’s not taking no for an answer.

As I was driving to church this morning, soaking in my grief, God asked me a question.  “When was the last time you felt this intensely sad?”

My mind immediately returned to July, 1999.  I had just learned that my very best friend was moving 1,000 miles away in less than a week.  That was pain.

When I recounted that memory to the Lord this morning, He responded, “And how did I use that tragedy in your life?”

I knew immediately what God was getting at.  It was through that chain of events in the summer of ’99 that I came to realize I needed a Savior, and no human savior would do.  That heartache was necessary for me to become willing to begin a relationship with Jesus.

God reminded me, “I used that pain then to draw you closer to Me.  Trust that I will do the same with the pain you are experiencing today.”

And as much as I wanted to, I couldn’t really argue with that.

Sometimes it is hard to take comfort in Bible verses or other people’s assertions that everything is going to be ok.  But if we can look back to a similar time in our own lives when the Lord was faithful to us, maybe we can find a speck of hope to hold on to.