Paige Thomas DeHart

Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding. – Kahlil Gibran

My daughter, Hope, was missing for five days this past week.  By yesterday, I had the experience of 99.9% believing that she was dead.  It was the most soul-crushing pain that I have ever experienced.  Last night, she resurfaced with the usual excuses that addicts have for being oblivious to others.  I was so relieved to hear her voice that nothing else mattered.  This morning, I was thinking about these circumstances and posed this question to my Lord of Love: “Why would You let me believe that she was dead?”  Moments later, I had a vivid moment of clarity.

Experiencing the seeming reality of my deepest fear, that my beautiful daughter had been murdered by ruthless criminals, gave me liberty.  In those moments of despair, I knew with certainty that I would survive.  I knew with certainty that God was with me.  I knew with certainty that Hope is an eternal being.

I now know with certainty that the only purpose of this life is to break the shell that encloses my vulnerability; that I may truly love others.

Hope remains a methamphetamine addict.  Hope remains on the streets with dangerous people.  But true Hope will never end; because this world is but a shadow of true reality.  Hope is eternal and lives inside each of us as a brilliant spark of Love.  But we must break the shell that encloses it that the spark may ignite; and understand that the breaking may occur as our worst nightmare.  But Love NEVER fails.

The Journey Continues

September 12, 2014