As my Facebook memories kindly reminded me, a year ago I was sitting at a gas station waiting on a tow truck after the radiator on my Jeep went kaput. Up until I saw that reminder, I had just about erased that day from my memory.

That was an eventful day, but not in the way I like my days to be eventful. At some point, I was sure that wrecker was never going to show up.

It’s way less stressful to look back in hindsight than it was to be in the middle of it. It also gives me a little bit of perspective — my car hasn’t had anything blow up or leak or quit working since then.

Sometimes, we get forgetful. We need reminders of God’s faithfulness in the past to help us remember how God will be true to His promises today. We need to read about past miracles to keep believing God still works wonders in the here and now.

That’s one reason to stay in the Word. Just about every page contains a promise or a recollection of who God was and is and ever will be. Just as God’s people failed and cried out for help in the past, we need to remember that we’re prone to wander and need God to come and find us from time to time.

Sometimes, we need to remind each other not to lose heart in the midst of difficulties because we remember all the stories of old when God was faithful then and will be faithful now and forever.

“It is when things go wrong, when the good things do not happen, when our prayers seem to have been lost, that God is most present. We do not need the sheltering wings when things go smoothly. We are closest to God in the darkness, stumbling along blindly. There is no such thing as belief without doubt or struggle” (Madeleine L’Engle).

As much as I would love for my walk of faith to be all sunshine and mountaintops and victories, I know that where I learn and grow best is in the darkness and in the valley and in defeat. Often, it’s the daily struggles and anxieties that teach me most.

But it’s also in those moments when I feel God’s closeness. Not to say that He isn’t close at other times, but it’s only when I feel my need of Him most that I feel Him the most. And that’s a very good thing.

I heard a pastor once who said that he doesn’t want someone who can only empathize with him. Then there are two people who are feeling bad. He said he wants someone who feels what he feels yet can actually do something about it to make it better. That’s Jesus.

Jesus has experienced the gamut of human emotion. The Bible says that He has been tempted in every way as we are and has experienced all that encompasses being human, yet He did not sin. You could say that while He was 100% divine, he was the most human person to ever walk on the earth.

I need someone in my corner like that. I need someone who understands when I just don’t have it in me. Someone who hears me when I say I believe but help my unbelief. Someone who can take my heavy burdens and can give me rest.

Jesus is all those things and so much more.

He’s the anchor in my storm. He’s the peace in the midst of my anxiety. He’s the center of gravity when my world feels like its flying apart. He’s my joy on good days and my comfort on bad days. He’s the way that leads me home, the truth that sets me free, and the life that is abundant and overflowing. He’s my everything.

I don’t know if you can tell from this picture, but there were spider webs all over the ground. I’d been hiking this trail for a long time and never noticed until recently.

I don’t know if it’s the way the light hits these webs that helped me see them for the first time. Or maybe I actually paid attention instead of being wrapped up in my own thoughts, as I can do from time to time. Or maybe it’s one of those things where once you notice it, you start seeing it everywhere.

It’s interesting how the slightest shift in perspective changes everything.

Once you shift from seeing your world through the lens of your troubles and trials and start seeing it through a God-filter, you see everything brand new and transformed. So what changed?

It’s the same world, same problems, same circumstances. But you’re different. You’re seeing things different. It’s almost like going from sleepwalking through life to finally being alert and awake.

It starts with “God, give me eyes to see the way You do. Help me see my life the way You see it.”

It starts with changing your mindset from entitlement to gratitude from cynicism to thankfulness. Giving thanks unlocks the miracles and allows you to see God at work in your world (thanks to Ann Voskamp for that bit of wisdom).

“Give me Your eyes for just one second
Give me Your eyes so I can see
Everything that I keep missin’
Give Your love for humanity
Give me Your arms for the broken-hearted
The ones that are far beyond my reach
Give me Your heart for the ones forgotten
Give me Your eyes so I can see” (Brandon Heath/Jason David Ingram).

In case you’d forgotten, God is bigger than whatever you’re facing right now. In fact, there is nothing that you have ever faced or will ever face that Jesus hasn’t already overcome on the cross. So the next time you feel overwhelmed or anxious about your problems, remind yourself and your problems that God is bigger.

I know for a fact that what people need to see in Christians isn’t perfection but authenticity. They don’t need to see polished as much as they need to see real. That’s why your mistakes and failures don’t disqualify you from being a witness. They validate and affirm the saving power of God.

I’ve seen over and over where sharing your story does bring you healing. It brings healing to others. There’s something miraculous and powerful when that one part of your past that you swore you’d never share with anybody becomes the first line of your testimony.

I read today that when most people throw away broken things, God intentionally goes after and chooses to use broken circumstances and broken people. In fact, sometimes God does the breaking if only so that we will have no choice but to look beyond ourselves and look up.

That doesn’t mean that your testimony has to be dramatic to be valid. You don’t need to have been rescued from addiction to have a story worth sharing. Sometimes the best stories are the ones where you see God working in you in little ways each day to make you less selfish, less fearful, and more like Jesus. The best testimonies are always the ones in progress.

As I’ve said before, people can argue with your theology and your doctrine, but no one can ever argue your own story. No one can ever deny your testimony of a life transformed by the power of Christ.

Before you get too excited, we’re not quite there yet. There are 12 more days until the official start of what I like to call the ‘ber months. That includes SeptemBER, OctoBER, NovemBER, and DecemBER. Typically, those months involve brisk temperatures and chilly breezes, but since this is the South, those don’t come until midway through October. But still.

This is my favorite time of the year. All my favorite holidays are there. So many happy memories come from there. Plus, you get things like pumpkin spice, pumpkins, apple cider, flannel, bonfires, smores . . . the list goes on.

The last few days have felt almost like a sneak preview of the coming season. Slightly cooler, slightly less humid means slightly happier me. And slightly less sweaty me, which makes everyone else happier.

But I’m not going to rush past this current season. I want to savor it and get all I can out of it and not miss anything from looking too far ahead. And it’s not like I’m counting down the days until fall (only 33 days).

“God does not desire suffering as an end in itself, I am sure. But all suffering is so expensive he will not let it be wasted. He will use it for his children’s growth. The first purpose of our lives must be, “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done.” This is never a passive statement of endurance or of mere agreement to submit to whatever happens. It is a positive statement of the will to reach out for that which will bring glory to God. I am also sure that the greatest prayer we can pray is, “Whatever brings the greatest glory to God, I want it, even if it brings suffering and loss to me” (Anna Mow).

I don’t think the Bible ever teaches us to seek out ways to suffer. It never tells us to run after pain and hardship. But it say that those things will come. Jesus promised that in this life you will have suffering. But He didn’t end it there.

He also said that I have overcome the world. Not I WILL overcome, but I HAVE overcome. The deed is done. Your suffering serves a purpose and will never be wasted. It leads to somewhere better than your comfort and security or prosperity could ever have led you.

The best way is to pray, “Thy will be done,” whether it leads to sunshine or suffering. Any success apart from the will of God will be empty and meaningless. Even the suffering of going through the valley of the shadow of death is worth it if God is with you and you can see Him and know Him better through your trials.

“I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little. For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength” (Philippians 4:12-13, NLT).

In honor of the passing of Frederick Buechner on August 15, I’m sharing a bit of his wisdom. He remains one of my very favorite writers ever:

“IT IS NOT A place, of course, but a condition. Kingship might be a better word. “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done,” Jesus prayed. The two are in apposition.

Insofar as here and there, and now and then, God’s kingly will is being done in various odd ways among us even at this moment, the kingdom has come already. Insofar as all the odd ways we do his will at this moment are at best half-baked and halfhearted, the kingdom is still a long way off—a hell of a long way off, to be more precise and theological.

As a poet, Jesus is maybe at his best in describing the feeling you get when you glimpse the Thing Itself—the kingship of the king official at last and all the world his coronation. It’s like finding a million dollars in a field, he says, or a jewel worth a king’s ransom. It’s like finding something you hated to lose and thought you’d never find again—an old keepsake, a stray sheep, a missing child. When the kingdom really comes, it’s as if the thing you lost and thought you’d never find again is you” (Frederick Buechner, Wishful Thinking).

Not every day will be a good day. Some days everything just seems to go wrong. Some days you’re the one who seems to go wrong. There will be days where you’re just glad to say that they’re over.

But there is always something good in every day. It may not be much, like a stranger smiling at you or the way that first sip of coffee warms your soul, but the good is there. Some days you have to look harder for it than others.

But if you seek the good in every day, you will find it.

And the best way to put yourself in a position to see the good is to be the good. The best way to see the good is to live gratefully and with thanksgiving. You can give thanks for the fact that you’re alive and breathing, for that cup of coffee, for the sunrise on your way into work.

If there is nothing for which you can give thanks, then you haven’t paid attention to your life. You’ve only seen the bad and neglected to look for the good. Because there is always good. Always.