I have wandered to this blog site a couple times in the past week, hoping that I would have some deep inspirational thought to pour out on the page. And all I can think is "I have not posted anything since May 13th...I was afraid that I was going to do this."
I could get very self deprecating for how I have "failed" at this blogging thing, but as my husband likes to remind me repeatedly, "Life is about starting and starting over!" So, here I am starting over. Maybe we could just say that my blog has taken a looooong summer vacation.
I received an email from a friend in WI recently who said, "Just read through about 10 of your more recent blogs--needing the encouragement
and strength in my own life to run the race that God has set before me." This was just the nudge I needed to put my hand to the plow (well actually the keypad) once again.
It has been an emotionally heavy summer for me in a lot of ways. My February post "This World is Not our Home" was only the beginning of several more tragedies to rock our little town with more loss, including the suicide of a recent high school graduate.
My mom and I flew to Michigan recently to say "goodbye" to my mom's best friend (and the one who led her to Christ nearly 50 years ago). Loretta was in the end stages of liver cirrhosis, and lost her battle just a couple weeks after our visit.
Just 2 days before Loretta's "graduation day" a dear friend from Mercy Ships who was battling for several years with cancer lost her battle as well. For both of these precious saints, it was a long and difficult journey. They both had asked and believed for healing, and yet still they died.
Where is God in all of this?
My reading from Max Lucado's "Grace for the Moment" spoke directly to this yesterday.
The problem with this world is that it doesn't fit. Oh, it will do for now, but it isn't tailor-made. We were made to live with God, but on earth we live by faith. We were made to live forever, but on this earth we live but for a moment...
We must trust God. We must trust not only that He does what is best but that He knows what is ahead. Ponder the words of Isaiah 57:1-2: "The good men perish; the godly die before their time and no one seems to care or wonder why. No one seems to realize that God is taking them away from the evil days ahead. For the godly who die shall rest in peace." (TLB)
My, what a thought. God is taking them away from the evil days ahead. Could death be God's grace? Could the funeral wreath be God's safety ring? As horrible as the grave may be, could it be God's protection from the future?
Trust in God, Jesus urges, and trust in me.
I certainly don't understand God's ways, and His reasons for supernaturally healing some, and allowing others to die? But I do know this...He knows best, and I can trust Him!!
