09/01/2026
I want to say thank you. You have quietly suffered while others have gone on about their lives. You have made choice after choice to lay down your life and sacrificially prefer others. You have held your peace and denied your tongue the freedom to react and say what many would say you had a right to say. You, humble servant of the Lord, have chosen to turn the air you breath into words of encouragement for others - while your own heart endured a loneliness that few will ever understand unless they have walked a similar path. You have become sweeter while others turn bitter. You have not accused God when you felt the weight of sorrows crushing your soul. When the voice of the accuser sent fiery arrows at you while you lay upon your bed, in the form of questions you had no answer for, you groaned quietly and prayed on. Questions like, why did God allow this? Why did He not save you when He saved another. Why did He not heal when He holds the very stars in His hands. Was your faith insufficient? Did you not pray hard enough? Did He not hear the prayers of the saints whom you turned to for support?
Thank you for choosing to know Him in the fellowship of His sufferings - as well as sharing the joy of our salvation. And because you have chosen to know and share ALL of His heart, both the sorrow and the joy, and to learn lessons few are willing to learn, to allow the mallet of His hand to shape you - you have become a fit vessel, able to comfort and strengthen many others in this life in ways that few can. And when you sing - the glory comes.
Yes, thank you for choosing to rest your weary heart in His arms, without demanding that life be “fair”, or that others receive God’s judgment when they offend you or persecute you. Thank you for being one of those who have humbled themselves under His mighty hand, endured loss and injustice and slander and all manner of trial, for His Name's sake. Thank you for choosing to believe that no earthly pain He allows is without eternal purpose, though you would not be able, even if you tried, to explain that purpose.
You have allowed the Master to crush you and chosen to trust Him anyway. You truly have become a fragrant w**e worthy of, and pleasing to, The King. You have, without knowing it, quietly joined the eternal company of heroes of the faith referred to in Hebrews 11.
Thank you, precious one, for allowing Jesus to turn the water of your tears - into the fragrant, matured (and potent) w**e of His Spirit. He truly has saved the best for last.- Brent Smallwood
