Beauty from Ashes

I have been working with a small group of women going through some difficult circumstances over the last seven weeks.  We are really beginning to bond now and it has been a blessing for me too.  Perhaps I should have shared more of this with you but better late than never.  This week we will be discussing loneliness.  Anyone relate to that?  Drop me a line and share your input. 
Excerpts from The Inner Journey, Views from  the Christian Tradition, edited by Lorraine Kisly
Chapter on Trans formative Suffering,  Christopher Fremantle...sacrifice as an essential part of the life process.  Sacrifice and death are linked together with that of rebirth and fulfillment.  In joining sacrifice, suffering and death with the concept of transformation and of the continuity of life as a total process,  Every sacrifice involves suffering, sometimes beneficial and sometimes not; what seems to distinguish "useful", strengthening and trans formative suffering from that which is useless and distorting is precisely its intentional quality.  If the suffering is not voluntarily accepted, it turns into bitterness, as Lot's wife turned into salt. Conscious transformation seek ways of coming into relationship with our inner powers/strengths, an attention which can link a man with his deepest aspirations and the power to resist the automatism of flight in the face of suffering.  It seems quite possible that a new understanding, confirmed by research, will show the role of sacrifice and suffering as vital forces in the chain of life's evolution and transformation.
                    Face you pain, embrace it.  If you will allow yourself to be vulnerable enough to go to the depths of it you will discover that Holy Spirit will speak truth to your heart and you will become better instead of bitter.  Only God can fill the deepest needs of  your heart.  Trust in His faithfulness and provision for your life.   Love ya