One of the blogs I discovered via my weekly Life:Unmasked link-up is Tanya Marlow’s Thorns and Gold. If you haven’t read her yet, you really must. She writes about faith and suffering from the perspective of the sufferer, having been diagnosed with a chronic autoimmune disease known as M.E. (Myalgic Encephalomyelits) six years ago. She is often unable to leave her home, but thanks to the marvel of the internet, she can still share with all of us. This fall she is running a weekly series on Tuesdays she calls “God and Suffering: Our Story” and I was thrilled when she asked me to contribute.

The post that came out is, I suppose, my testimony to how God has helped me rebuild my faith from the ground up. It’s the story of thinking I had all the answers, learning I didn’t, and finding God in the not knowing. Here’s a teaser.

The rawness of my grief blasted away every last shred of pretense that I had answers. What I thought I believed about God and faith and life as God’s children didn’t work. This wasn’t supposed to happen to God’s children. My faith couldn’t accommodate this. It was irreparably flawed.

I decided to start over. I asked, “Is there a God?”

I prayed, “God, if you’re really there, show me. Find me.”

You can read my post, Sandblasted, on Tanya’s blog. I’ll be responding in the comments over there, so I have closed comments here.

If you are visiting from Tanya’s blog, welcome! You may be interested in a more extended version of the story I told at her place today. Two years ago, I wrote a series as I worked through some of that rebuilding process.

• One – Going Back to the Beginning
• Two – Stuck Between Two Horses
• Three – The Wrong God
• Four – Stepping Stones and a Crossroads
• Five – Of Simmering, Resting, and Labels
• Six – He Is Not a Tame Lion
• Seven – Letters to the Wounded from the Wounded