Sunday, May 29, 2011

Lorna

I’d be complaining and telling God he is not being fair. I’d be like Job thinking calamity should not happen to me because I am a good person who worships God. I’d be desperately seeking ways to calm my troubled soul. But my good friend is relying on God and his strength instead of wallowing in self-pity. I am sure she has had her moments of asking why and telling God she is angry about the situation. But that is not where she has stayed.

Lorna has had a really bad week. Early in the week her elderly, ill mother went to be with the Lord. As the primary caregiver, Lorna has the bulk of the responsibility of planning for the funeral. Funeral planning for a parent is always difficult.

But worse was to come. On Friday the army chaplain visited her home. Her son had been killed by an improvised explosive device as he served our country in Afghanistan. No mother should have to plan a funeral for her twenty-five year old son. No one should ever have to plan a funeral for her son and her mother in the same week.

In a short email sent to people on our church prayer chain, she briefly stated her need for prayer this week. Her words speak of her faith in God—that she is relying on him for strength and direction. She wrote,

“We don't know about lots of things. But this I do know - and hold on to - that God is in control. He numbers our days. He cares deeply for us. The God who spoke this earth into being certainly has those who he created in His image in the palm of His hands.”

“Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me, for in you my soul takes refuge. I will take refuge in the shadow of your wings until the disaster has passed.” Psalm 57:1 NIV

So even in the worst of times we are to rely on our faith in God.

“But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.” Philippians 3:20-21 NIV

Lord, Be with this dear lady. Envelop her and her family in your protective love.

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