Adjusting to Change

Over the summer my mom became ill, but we were very lucky because whatever it was went about as quickly as it came. 


Unfortunately whatever it was has returned and seems much worse this time.  I know the Internet is not always a good thing, but since she has become ill again I have come across some people with the same type of situations.  


No cure mind you, but at least I know that this kind of thing does happen and we are not alone.


The hard part is watching someone who was always such a nurturer and sweet person change before our eyes into something else.  There is hope that since she snapped out of it last time that could happen again.  That is what we are holding onto.  


Hope.


I wonder how people who go through traumatic situations survive without hope.  While I know I should just let the Lord take care of it, and I really have given it to him, it is so hard not to ask why, or what good can come from such a thing.  


Last night I went to visit my mom and she wouldn't hardly look at me, when I spoke to her she would look away and ask us to leave.  There was a lady sitting next to her who had grown up in the same area as my mom and knew her sister.  


As she talked she said, you know, sometimes things happen and we don't understand why God lets them happen, but maybe in a few years we will look back and we can see that he did have a plan, we just have to trust him.


While I knew that in my heart, and I truly believe it, I was glad to hear it come from someone else.


That is hope.


Trusting in the Lord.


It's hard to not be able to just call her and talk to her like we use to, but that's where I have to adjust myself.  Things will not be the same, they will be different.  But they can still be good, I just have to keep trusting the Lord, and hoping.

Hope

This is taken from the Proverbs 31 newsletter that I get emailed to me.

What a message!

 Hope in the Rubble

2 Mar 2010

Lynn Cowell

"I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength" Ephesians 1:18 (NIV)

Mind-boggling devastation filled the screen. I just couldn't wrap my mind around everything that had taken place by the earthquake in Haiti. Such suffering and pain. I went to sleep with the images firmly planted in my mind and heart.

When I awoke in the morning, I began to pray before my feet hit the ground: prayer for miracles, supplies and those who would arrive in that precious country to serve and minister to the broken. A picture of a crying bab y being pulled from the rubble came to mind. After over 48 hours of no food, no water and being trapped under a collapsed house, the 18 month-old was rescued. It was truly a miracle.

My prayers moved from the Haitian crisis to praying for a loved one who has gone astray. The one I love has much in common with the newly rescued baby. He too is trapped. Trapped by the weight and destruction of bad decisions and flawed thinking patterns. What seemed like a common path many were taking led to a place of destruction.

What this precious baby and my loved one do not have in common is the desire to be free. The baby sensed something was wrong. Where was her family? Where was food and water? Why wasn't someone coming to her rescue? Such thoughts occupied her tiny immature mind. My loved one has yet to discover that he indeed needs rescuing. He has yet to recognize the weight of selfishness, unforgiveness and self-destruction pressing on him.

Do you have one you desperatel y love who is heading toward destruction and doesn't realize it? Do you have days when the rubble of sin seems too heavy- too much to be removed? And you just can't see how God is going to break through?

Help is arriving in Haiti. Armies, doctors, nurses and relief workers from around the world are helping. Rescue is taking place. People's lives have been saved, and in time, the destruction will be removed.

Rescue is available for our loved ones, too. Prayer is the place to begin as we hope that in the middle of their own destruction, they will see their need for rescue. When that realization becomes clear, like the tiny baby in Haiti, our loved ones will cry out for help. We know our God will be there to hear and rescue. He may use others to help them. He may call them to push away some of the debris. But more than anything, we know He wants them free.

Dear Lord, some days I grow weary of praying for my loved one. I am so glad that You don't. Ple ase open their eyes to see the destruction they are in and give them the desire to break free. In Jesus' Name, Amen.