Shaken

Yesterday was a very heavy day - with sad news coming our direction twice.

Kurt came home from work for lunch looking very spent. One of his workers - the son of a prominent Christian figure in our community - had just received test results back. The day before while he was mowing his lawn his knees got weak and he was seeing spots. He went to the doctor to see what was going on. Initially they showed he was anemic. Then they called him back with further results... he was diagnosed with acute leukemia. Talk about a sock in the stomach. Here's a presumably healthy guy in his 20's, just getting started in life, with a new baby, and everything comes crashing down in an instant.

A few hours later I received a phone call from a neighbor. This lady has already had a disaster of a year. Five months ago her life was turned upside down with the arrest of her husband. (I wrote about it in a previous post.) Yesterday when I answered the phone, I could barely understand who it was I was talking to. She was in absolute anguish. Her mother - her best friend and confidant through these past few months - had passed away unexpectedly. She told me she didn't know if she could handle it.

Talk about being shaken to your core. Having your life suddenly change direction. And a direction you didn't want to head in. Or feel you don't have the strength to walk through.

As I was driving home after dropping the kids off from school this morning, I was thinking of these two families. And I stopped in the middle of my thoughts to hear a song playing on the radio I'd never heard before. It was called Always by Building 429. Such powerful words in the bridge, followed by the chorus:

Friend I don't know where you are
And I don't know where you've been
Maybe you're fighting for your life
Or just about to throw the towel in
But if you're crying out for mercy
If there's no hope left at all
If you've given everything you've got
And you're still about to fall
Well hold on, hold on, hold on

Cuz I believe always always
Our Savior never fails
Even when all faith is gone
God knows our pain and His promise remains
He will be with you always

I don't know how to comfort my neighbor friend through this. But I know God does. And He's the only way she can get through this. May this be an open door to share Him with her. And may I have the boldness to do it.