Tragedy happens way too often. Our response to it is paramount in our future. Not just our physical and worldly future, but our spiritual future as well.
This past weekend four young adults were taken from their families through a horrendous car accident. One young man, Louis, was a week away from his wedding. He left behind a fiancé with two young children. My husband was to perform the marriage ceremony. It is truly a heart-wrenching story.
As we waited at the Funeral Home to pay our respects to the family, I was amazed at the number of 20-somethings who were drawn together looking for comfort, for answers, for strength to face each new day – not knowing or understanding why.
This is a tragic story. But it is a story not without hope…
As part the wedding process for each couple that he marries, my husband Paul requires that he counsels with them 3 or 4 times. These sessions are sometimes fun, informative, and important. He gives procedural as well as spiritual counsel. About two weeks ago in a session with Louis and his fiancé, Meghan, Paul shared with them an invitation to receive Christ as their personal Savior. Both understood and accepted Him into their hearts and lives. What a joyous day!
At the Funeral Home, as we approached a broken Meghan, she began to cry out, “Because you talked with us, because you prayed with us, I know where Louis is. He is in Heaven!”
Please pray for Meghan and her two children as they continue to deal with the grief and as she grows in her relationship with Her Savior.
HOPE IN THE MIDST OF TRAGEDY
October 29, 2009 at 11:18 am (Focus, Lessons Learned, Love)
IT CHANGED ME….
September 27, 2009 at 7:42 pm (Attitudes, Family, Just Emotions, Lessons Learned, Love, Reality)
Two years ago today, I was sitting in a Doctor’s Office when I heard those dreaded words, “You have breast cancer.” I know that she continued to talk, but I honestly could not process what she was saying. I felt as though a train had hit me. I do remember she repeated to me that I was not going to die from this.
Two years later, I marvel at what all has happened and how I have changed. Yes, I have changed quite a bit. Initially I vowed that cancer would not change me. I fought hard to remain exactly the same. I wanted to be who I always was. But the cancer won and I began to change.
The most obvious changes were physical. I now have a 7½ inch scar. I felt as though my body had played a cruel joke on me. I never saw it coming and I was the object of a nightmarish prank.
I was very fortunate and only required two surgeries for the cancer to be gone. After that, four more for reconstruction and I am pronounced “Finished!”
But I definitely have changed.
Over these twenty-four months I have begun to see the value of family, of friends, of church, of ministry, of life. I realize my own mortality. I know that I cannot “do it all”. I have fought hard not to learn these things, but the cancer taught them to me.
Along with the cancer came some unwanted “friends”. Depression, loneliness, pain, confusion and anger. And each of them, in their own way and time changed me also.
As I look back today, I can honestly say that the cancer changed me and I would not have it any other way. I have more compassion for the hurting, more understanding for the depressed. I know that my own life is not as important as I once thought. There are too many ways I have changed for the better to even list. But I thank God that He allowed me to go down this path. I thank Him for a loving, caring, compassionate husband who was with me each step of the way. I thank Him for children who bring me joy. And I pray that I will not waste one lesson that I have learned because of the cancer.
Forgive me for being a bit “morbid” today, but I just needed to put into words my thoughts. I am praying for each friend I know who is also traveling this most difficult road.
MY MOM
November 18, 2008 at 7:47 pm (Family, Love)
It has been 2 ½ months since my Mother passed away. She was 88 years old and the best mother in the world! There are so many ways that I could describe her “bestness”. Mom was a good wife to my Dad. She was an excellent cook. The neighborhood kids thought of her as a second mother. (She typed papers for our teenage neighbor, Nancy, when Nancy couldn’t do it for herself.) Mom was willing to sacrifice for our spiritual growth. She went to Youth Conventions and stayed up till 3 or 4 in the morning to make sure we were all in our rooms. Each summer she spent about 4 – 4 ½ weeks at Living Waters Camp in a 14’ x 16’ cabin with no running water. She allowed each of her children develop in their own individual way. I was the youngest; the one that was “full of energy”. Even though Mom was a self-proclaimed worrier, she never stopped me from climbing trees or walking on top of the monkey bars at Mt. Odin Park. Mom also taught us the value of family. It was important for us to do “family things” such as picnics, ice skating, vacations, and holiday celebrations.
For all those reasons, my Mom could be considered the best. But those reasons are not why I thought she was the best. To me, my Mother, Lois Jane Clayton Kasparek was the best because she loved me. Her love was unconditional. Her love was real. And her love will always remain in my heart.
Today, I am really missing her.
JESUS LOVES ME- AND EVERYONE ELSE TOO!
July 23, 2008 at 7:03 pm (Love)
“Jesus loves me, this I know.
For the Bible tells me so.
Little ones to Him belong.
They are weak, but He is strong!
Yes, Jesus loves me!
Yes, Jesus loves me!
Yes, Jesus loves me!
The Bible tells me so!”
I am so glad that Jesus loves ME! He does; He really does! And I am SPECIAL to Him! But way too often, I believe that I am more special to Jesus than anyone else!
Last September, due to some incredible circumstances, I was diagnosed with early stage breast cancer. If I had not been for a missions trip to India (my doctor insisted that I have a physical), it would not have been found for a long time. I would have needed more extensive treatment. But God was so good to me!
Does that mean that Jesus loves me more than anyone else? No! Does it mean that I am more special than anyone else? No! I did not deserve God’s goodness or His compassion. But it was God’s grace that is spread to each of us!
Romans 12:3 says, “Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment.” Too often we think we have a “corner on God’s love”. But God loves ALL mankind. I pray that I keep this all in the proper perspective. Jesus compels us to love each other as He loves us.
THE GREATEST IS LOVE
February 21, 2008 at 2:22 pm (Love)
I love doing things well! It feels good to sit back and see “my creation” (whether it is a sewing project, something that I have cooked, or a child that I have raised). I must admit, at times I am filled with pride at my accomplishments! The other day in my personal devotions, I was hit with reality. In I Corinthians 13 (“The Love Chapter”), I read as Paul said that if I do great things, “but have not love”, I am simply an annoying clang! My accomplishments, my “great abilities” are worthless. It is simply and only “love” that is important. Someone once told me that “all things respond to love”. In our goal-oriented society, we believe that all things respond to technology, to well-planned programs, to perfection. But all that is worthless without love. And it must be the perfect “agape” love of God. Since the other day, I have been praying that more than anything I show God’s love to others. My world needs the saving love of Jesus Christ!
