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Friday we cried again.
We expect leaves to fall in October and November.
What if they fall in April?
And what if they fall because someone pulls them off the trees? As if the leaves had done something wrong.
It’s unnatural. If this can happen, what else unnatural can happen?
“I don’t feel safe anymore,” I could think.
Good. I’ve never really ever been safe. I need to feel the reality of it.
I’ve never been safe because this has never been my home. There’s another home God has in mind and these things don’t happen in that home, but we’re not there yet.
Until then, there’s trouble and tragedy that feels unnatural but isn’t. It’s natural for a broken world to act broken.
Only by the grace and mercy of God has all hell not broken loose in my life and my world.
For those parents and families in Connecticut, it has broken loose. For my wife’s friend Stephanie, whose daughter was found this week at the bottom of a pond, it has. For my friend Allison, who has breast cancer, it has.
So where’s the pep talk?
Long before the bad news from Connecticut, my friend Allison – the one with breast cancer – said,
“I feel sorry for people who don’t have cancer.”
Obviously, you have to ask why. Her answer comes from someone who has experienced tragedy, and yet is deeply grateful. In a way that I’ll probably never know, she has learned that absolutely nothing can separate her from the love of God.
I put her answer on the radio station I serve, right after Burl Ives feeling holly and jolly.
Her answer is your pep talk. Click the link to listen.
Allison — gratefulness, tragedy, and the love of God.
What are you thankful for today?
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