Bless the Lord, Oh My Soul

Today one of my friends received news that she had been waiting over a year for. After being torn apart from her husband and four young children for about eight months due to false accusations, and having to endure painful words, accusing stares, lonely nights, moment after frustrating moment, court case after useless court case, she heard the words today: CASE DISMISSED. Now she can finally make her family whole again, continue to heal, and grow with her family every moment of every day.

This Sunday, another special family I know will mark two weeks since their lives were tragically altered by the sudden death of their husband and daddy. A wife continues to grieve for the loss of the man she has spent almost half her young life with. Two little girls will continue to ask for Daddy, but Daddy has gone where they can’t see him. This family will continue this life, but never be truly whole again.

The situations are vastly different, yet have many similarities. They were both painful experiences with life-altering circumstances. They both caused a need to adjust to a “new normal”. They both will never be forgotten. They both also caused me to think of the same song.

It seems strange that two opposite situations – one family coming back together, one family being torn asunder – would solicit the same response from me. But they did, because this is God’s life, and He does weird things like that.

Matt Redman has a new song out called “10,000 Reasons”. The chorus goes like this:

“Bless the Lord, oh my soul
Oh, my soul
Worship His holy name
Sing like never before
Oh, my soul
I worship Your holy name”

Some people would say there’s a lot of gray in the Bible. I say I know many things to be black and white, and this principle is one of them: Whether it’s a good time or bad time, we are to worship God regardless.” Coach Grant Taylor put it this way in the movie Facing the Giants, “If we win, we’ll praise Him. And if we lose, we’ll praise Him.” Two opposite experiences. Same outcome.

We’re not going to understand everything God does. We’re not going to like everything God allows. But, whether we like it or not, we are to praise Him. Loving God means trusting Him even when everything around us doesn’t make sense. Loving God means praising Him when all we want to do is lie down and cry. Loving God means accepting we may never know the reasons for our heartaches. Many people see a faith in God as a sign of weakness. I see it as being the biggest show of strength imaginable. It’s easy to say “I give up.” It’s only the strongest that can say, “I don’t understand, but still will I trust.”

Two phenomenal women. Two opposite yet incredibly painful circumstances. Two families forever changed. Same unworldly response:

“Bless the Lord, oh my soul; And all that is within me, bless His holy name!” -Psalm 103:1

**Please continue to remember the Hadfield and Erskine families in your prayers. Though the Hadfield’s are restored, there is still much healing to happen. The Erskine family is still under unimaginable amounts of pain, and healing will not come quickly. Please pray for both of these incredible families still hurting, but still trusting in the love of our Savior.**

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Even Unto Death

This entire night, I have struggled trying to figure out what to write. My heart is still heavy with the loss of my friend, and there seems to be nothing pouring out of me verbally. In all honesty, I really don’t want to write. But maybe that in itself is the best reason to write.

This isn’t supposed to happen. Healthy thirty-one year old men with incredible families, loved jobs, and great passion don’t just collapse and die for no reason. They just don’t. This is not what the world is supposed to be.

And the truth is, this is NOT how the world was created to be. We were not meant to die all of a sudden. We weren’t meant to die, period. But when sin entered the world, what was to be was destroyed, and senselessness prevailed. Things like cancer, war, murder, and tragedies were not meant to be a part of our lives, but because we broke trust with what was intended, they are a byproduct of our punishment.

It is almost second-nature, in times like these, to look up at God and ask how He could let this happen. How could He just stand back and let this amazing young man die so suddenly, leaving his wife, young children, family, and friends to grieve so deeply. How could He? Didn’t He love Lynn? Doesn’t He care about how we feel? Doesn’t He know Lynn’s family and friends need him? How could God possibly take him away?? These are the questions we throw at God. We doubt His love and care. We wonder at His selfishness or callousness. And when all that is done, we fall in exhaustion feeling no better about what has happened.

But imagine. Imagine, as those words are flying out of our mouths and thoughts. Imagine God’s face. I don’t think the enormousness of the feelings of our loss are any comparison at all to the brokeness that must be upon God’s face when He hears these questions. The sadness in His eyes would be too great for our sight to behold. The intense pain in His heart would rent our hearts beyond repair. And these feelings of God’s would not be because we doubt His wisdom, but because we are suffering. His children are suffering, and He mourns with us.

God never intended this to happen. But He refused to create robots. In His love, He gave us free will. With our free will, we made a bad choice. In our bad choice, He lost His Son. And, though now through His Son our SOULS have life eternal, out bodies still suffer the consequences of our fall. Was Lynn’s death God’s intention? No. It was, like so many others, a result of the choices made thousands of years ago. Is God grieving? Yes, because His children are hurting. Is there a good reason this happened? Yes. Yes, there is.

Death has a way of opening eyes that never would have been opened. Death has a way of bringing our lives and choices into sharp relief. Death makes us contemplate our own, and whether there is an eternity, and what side of it will we be on.

I know this firsthand, for my salvation was the result of a death. A young man, 16, a little older than I was at the time, taken too suddenly in a tragic car accident. And though it seemed so senseless, and though so many questioned God, it saved me. And every person I reach in the name of Christ is a positive action of that death. And every person they reach, and so on. I stand here today, sixteen-and-a-half years later, one of many that found Christ through a tragic death.

Everything, EVERYTHING, works for the good of those who love God. Romans 8:28 gives no exceptions. And so may the Lord take what we see as tragic, senseless, and painful, and turn it into something beautiful beyond description. And if sphere of influence is any indication, there is going to be an unimaginable throng of people coming to know Christ’s love, all because Lynn made a decision to follow Him, even unto death. We will never know the total effect here on earth, but oh, what a sweet sweet meeting it will be when we all get to see!

I will miss you, my friend. Things will never be the same, but the new normal will come. And with it, an even greater anticipation for the home we on Earth have yet to see. Love always, my friend. ❤

LOBLA

He Does Indeed Now Live

I have not much to say today. I am still in shock over the news of the loss of a dear friend from college. Only about my age – young 30’s. He was as healthy as could be. We constantly hear the phrase “You just never know” in times like these. And it’s true. You don’t know. We are not guaranteed tomorrow. Those you love – tell them. Those you need to forgive – forgive them. Those bridges that need to be rebuilt – rebuild them. Do not say you’ll do it later. We all think later will always come. It won’t. Soon you won’t have a later. Do it now.

In honor of you, Lynn. My friend, my encourager. You will be sorely missed.

He Does Indeed Now Live

If God had given me the news
Of what would happen that day
Then I would have begged of Him
To hear what I had to say

I would have told Him of great works
You had done in His holy name
I would tell Him all the reasons:
Your family, friends, loves, and aims

I would do my best to make Him see
That to take you would be a mistake
Surely He would see it my way
And leave you and His choice forsake

But the news God did not give to me
And here we are left to grieve
To wonder why God had decided
That it was time for you to leave

But even if I’d had my chance
To fill God’s ear with my thoughts
He would have just looked at me sadly
And said “My child, you think I know not?”

“For it was I who gave the life
Of which you now for plead
I directed his steps and laid the way
And there he followed My lead.

I’ve watched him fly; I’ve watched him fall.
I’ve seen all his heartfelt deeds
And though so many love him dearly
Not one loves him more than Me.

So please do not be angry with Me
Do not despise the choosing I’ve done
For all have a time, and this was his
The time to call home My son

But peace I leave you, comforting grace
And strength I do now give
For though he is gone far from your sight
He does indeed now live!”

So we cling to the promise, cherish hope
And hold our memories near
Until our time comes to be called home
And see once again you, most dear

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