The Testing Place
Have you ever felt like God has put you in a testing place?  Have you ever felt like you have been there so long, it begins to become a new normal for you as you begin to forget where you once were and who you used to be?  I find myself everyday looking out on the world around me like I'm in a strange unfamiliar place.  There is a certain feeling of emptiness and detachment about this place.  I find God brings me to a place where the things of the world begin to grow strangely dim and I let them go because they have lost their value to me.  Like Frodo in the Lord of the Rings, I have forgotten the taste of food and the feeling of grass under my feet.  I find every morning I have to run to the Lord because He is the only thing that makes any sense.  I hide myself in His strong tower while the darkness passes by and people speak their words and men choose their own destiny.  I wish I could remain there, hidden in Him, but He pushes me out into the world of men.  There I see nothing but pride and envy, selfishness and lust, vain ambition and deceit.  There I see myself.  What a wonderful Savior is our Jesus, what a blessed living hope we have in Him.