One of Those Lives

Some people have one of those days. I feel like I have one of those lives!! You know what I mean? The last few weeks have been amazing in ministry and brutal in person. I have gone from incredible joy and celebration to incredible depths of hurt and pain. The culmination of most of that has been the death of my dad and the trip to the service. It has left me feeling ragged, strung out and feeling like a shadow of myself.

I was telling my brother the other day that the best thing that happened one day last week was the car wash broke the antenna on Alana’s Suburban. Literally, that was the highlight for me. Personally, it was a nightmare.

As I look back on it, I realize that on the same day about 40 people from LifeQuest gathered together to make blankets to send to some missionaries in Mexico to help them minister to the poor in their community. The same day, a small group from our church put together a new church sign to face the Turnpike entrance next to the church. The same day people rallied around to cover the weekend service so I could go be with my family in Mississippi.

It has been a week of less than joyful moments. But I am reminded that Paul told us that the troubles of this present age are of no comparison to the joy of the age to come (2 Corinthians 4:17). I am also reminded that he who is in me (Christ) is greater than he who is in the world (1 John 4:4).

I don’t understand it all. Why does it pour when it rains in our lives? Why isn't it all just easy and joyful? Why does God allow pain and heartache to accompany joy and celebration?

Greater minds than mine have tried to understand. I know very little when it comes to the ways of God. But, as John Newton the author of Amazing Grace said, “I know I am a great sinner and Jesus is a great savior.” For me, that is enough for now.