The variety, scope and degree of painful and confusing life circumstances is never ending. There are days of uncertainty and doubt as well as confidence and assurance. Days when the darkness seems to overwhelm and have eternal staying power, until the light breaks through again to restore the promise of a life redeemed. The constant cycling through failures and success, defeats and victories, losses and gains threaten the sanity of those whose expectations are for personal perfection. Each of us must confront and accept the depth of just how corrupt our hearts can really be. To believe that a heart, which is without the healing and restoration of Jesus, can be truly free to love and be loved, which is the ultimate purpose, is to fall into one of the greatest deceptions ever perpetrated by our unseen enemy. In this understanding we see that life on our own terms is only hell on earth. As we press into God and reject the false hope of worldly promises we are able to reveal the power and beauty of a heart transformed by the loving yet painful sculpting of our Father God. The more that I understand and accept that this is what life with God looks like, this side of heaven, the more true peace I have.