2:58 p.m. Today's project was to pick up the Bibles we had engraved for our grandsons, Adrian and Xavier, at Berean Christian store in the La Sierra area of Riverside. Their names look so beautiful--and were perfectly spelled, I checked--on their "gift size" New Living Translation scriptures.
After a fun and busy morning showcasing Heart to Home classes for the morning Bible Study, purchasing elegant frames for our son's wedding pictures and then attempting to download the three I plan to enlarge, I needed to get away after lunch for some solitary prayer time. I've found that for me, driving is the perfect time to mourn, shed a few tears, and implore the Lord in behalf of my family, other loved ones, friends, or even myself. The crosstown drive would be perfect, especially on such a fresh, breezy day.
Last night we received devastating news about someone who has become very dear to us. The fact that the Holy Spirit had showed me it was the case a number of months earlier did little to lesson the impact. Steve and I wept and prayed together after receiving the text message. "It's so unfair!" Steve cried, with utterly heavy grief. Imagine the compassion he has, while living out one of the worst experiences that anyone could bear, the slow death of his brain. Similarly, our friend's Macular Degeneration, while it may move at varying speeds in different individuals, has, barring Divine intervention, only one conclusion: blindness.
I am not sure when we'll be able to sit down all together, and definitely am not sure how or if I will be able to contain myself when we do. May the Lord allow Steve and me to "comfort them with the same comfort by which we ourselves are comforted by God." (I Corinthians 1:4).
Today as I drove west through Riverside, I was tempted to wonder, "Lord, doesn't our family have more than enough to bear, not only with Steve's condition, but the fear--I said it, fear!--of Alzheimer's striking our children and future grandchildren? and now this?" And the answer comes from II Corinthians 12:9, for all believers who do not blame, denounce or doubt God, but simply wonder how the days will unfold, and how we will act wisely and honorably when the anguish is at its most severe and the path forward becomes unclear: "My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness."
Trials test our faith and show the world the character Christ has placed within us by His Holy Spirit. Our upright, humble behavior, patience and trust in God bring Him glory, and the steadfast courage He lends us for our time of need is a witness that Jesus lives. HE LIVES! Jesus not only lives, He lives eternally at the right hand of God, interceding for us with the Father. (Romans 8:34).
One of our children is inspiring us right now, refusing to waiver, remaining steadfast in what our family knows to be true, choosing to stay in God's will rather than flee to safer ground.
No one knows the future, but there is no "safer" ground than in the center of God's will. None.
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