More From Peter Veugelaers

Hello, dear readers! I am glad you are here.

I think I should start with explaining why I wanted to write this meditation. Before I typed the meditation out, I had intended to write a devotion for The Upper Room one day, because I had seen the publication before and thought it was suitable for me.

I let the idea of getting published in The Upper Room marinate for a while. Then just before Easter in 2018, I felt inspired to write specifically for this publication while I was working in my garden patch.

Conscious of doing a good job on the piece, I carefully worded it. I came into it with a desire to get published, of course, so I knew to put my best foot forward from the start. I also believed in what I was writing.

Thinking about the theme of the piece, I guess it could be easy to say that it is that there’s a light in the darkness of any hard time we may go through. But I was also thinking of my own experiences as I was writing the meditation. The scripture I used fit what I wanted to say as well. In fact, I had read the scripture earlier and got inspired later, and the two clicked.

I believe my own hard time has passed, but through it, I had many blessings and rays of light from God to guide my way. In fact, I had a strength inside of myself that helped me not to be bothered by my experience of the harder side of life! Amazing!

For a while I found thinking about the “God thing” to be too much to take, but somehow I found myself still believing, despite my pain. And when I fell to my knees to start my life afresh, I got more than I expected from God, in a moment with the Lord.

I believe God was there for me, and I came to rely on God more because of what I went through. I believe that if I hadn’t gone through it, I wouldn’t have known the experience of God as much. With God, I could take trouble with a lighter step—even be glad—in spite of suffering. In fact, I found a new purpose.

As a consequence of my experience, I try to be very aware of what others may be going through. I am quick to think that others may not have had ways out or ways through their hard time. Even as I was writing the meditation, I felt inadequate about writing something that put a light in the darkness, rather than something more real from a human perspective.

I know there are people who find the thought of overcoming their difficulties impossible. I hope there can be something of God’s light there for them, to comfort and heal them, when enduring their lot seems all that’s possible. Still, we can all talk to Jesus, who is still there.

The big news at the moment is the coronavirus, and it brings fear into my heart. No one wants to catch it, especially me! But I have a peace that it will be alright, at least for me. But I know that is not true for everyone, and it is out of our control. Some things are beyond our control, and that can be hard to take. But God is good despite all the suffering that goes on—this I feel inside my heart. Godspeed to you all.