For those who've gone through the breakup of a not-yet-marriage

 Two things I stumbled across tonight, seemingly linked! 

An old photo and an old article. Unrelated, and yet somehow perhaps it was God orchastrated them both before my eyes tonight.

 First, the photo: 

I felt the familiar little stab of pain whenever I see pictures of my time in Israel. 

This photo was taken at the beach where Jesus asked Peter "but who do you say I am?" Then Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” 

Jesus replied to Peter, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” (Matthew 16:16-19)

While we were told all this, one couldn't help but imagine you were there too, 2015-2017 years ago, sitting here with Jesus. 

Basically, where I had my hand was the church that was built in respect of this conversation. 

But the imagining and awe-of-events-ness was pretty fleeting for me on this day. On a more personal level, I was crying, probably more weeping at the state of my life underneath that smile and glasses. 

I felt fat and so so so sad here. 

When we were walking down to this beach, a thought popped into my mind which spurned me to realise I needed to break up with David. 

It was overwhelming to say the least. I had nowhere to go away and be alone to organise my thoughts and feelings. Something terrible happens to the soul when you have to plaster on a happy face while inside you're trembling with fear and sadness. I still had 2 weeks to go! Awful! 

But Anyway!!

Phew, shake it off!! Nearly 6 months later, I'm MUUCCCHH better; lighter, deeply content with life, joyful and happy. Very happy. 

I then discovered this article tonight when trying to research John Pipers opinion on a book I was thinking of purchasing. Entitled: "It's not you, it's God" written by Marshall Segal http://www.desiringgod.org/articles/it-s-not-you-it-s-god-nine-lessons-for-breakups

I'm posting it here for easy access, because I wish I had it sent to me after

I got back from Israel and walked through all that.

 

So that's all from me, a glance down memory lane with a deep sense of purpose on this beautiful March night. 

"Sin was strong but, Jesus is stronger. Our (sadness) was great, but Jesus you're greater."

- raised to life - elevation worship.