Like a Shrinky Dink

The week has been a long one, and I have been burdened for three specific reasons. Details aside, as I've prayed, studied and journaled, I've learned a few things.

1. I have a heart for the Church. God is developing that more and more in me...my heart hurts for those who mourn and grieve. For God's people who struggle and hurt for various reasons. For a Church that longs to do right, but so often does what it doesn't want to do.

2. My first reaction to a burdened spirit is to pray out of it...immediately. This week, it didn't work...days on end my heart was heavy. In turn, this made me go deeper in prayer and in the Word. After this week, I won't look at a burdened spirit as something to get rid of...but something to search through and learn from.

3. I am like a Shrinky Dink. I start one way and end up looking similar, but different...stronger. Yep. Like a Shrinky Dink.

My girls love Shrinky Dinks. If you aren't familiar, they start out plain, and the artist colors them with colored pencils. After coloring, the Shrinky Dinks are flat, large and malleable. They look like this:

Next, you add heat. In the oven, the Shrinky Dinks curl up and begin to shrink. It's at this moment I always begin to worry that they will come out in ruin...even though the instructions verify that they will again flatten out.

When the heat is removed, the item is about 1/4th the size of the original. The original artwork remains, but the Shrinky Dink is thicker and hard. It's changed, yet still recognizable. 

Such it is with trials of many kinds. I go in looking one way and come out recognizable, but changed. The more times this happens, the more I can see the good work that goes on, even with the heat. God is moving...doing great things. And I am excited to be a part of it.

Anyone else been a Shrinky Dink lately?