Posts from — July 2010

I just spent a great weekend hanging out with a dear friend.  As often happens after spending time with her, I am reflecting on our friendship and all that has transpired over these past 12 years.  I can’t spend time with her without finding myself in a deep place of praise and thankfulness.  God uses her in mighty ways for me.  I often want to write after catching up with her because there is just so much for me to process.  But, life gets busy and after a week or so, I’ve entered back into reality and the words to express how profoundly she impacts my life are lost.  Today, something is keeping me from moving on.  I have to write about it.  It’s so moving and stirs my soul so deeply that I have to tell it.

You see, my friend has had tragedy hit her life in numerous ways.  I won’t get into all of it, but the latest tragedy hit 2.5 years ago.  Her husband left her with 4 boys to raise alone.  The twins were 6 weeks old.  She was devastated and dumbfounded.  She had no job and no church body to support her.  It just so happened that I was traveling through NC at the time, and had already planned a visit to see them and their new babies.  Instead of rejoicing with them over their newest additions, I found myself comforting a friend who was in deep despair.  There are no words to describe the suffering I witnessed.  I didn’t want to leave her when it was time to go.  I called someone from a local church she had just so happened to make a connection with a few months prior and pleaded with her to find people who could help.  What transpired after that, and what has continued to transpire has impacted many lives in profound ways.  This church rallied around her and sent people into her home daily to help her with cleaning, childcare, cooking, etc.  God answered my prayers for her in bigger ways than I could have ever expected.  I had to relinquish her to Him, and He cared for her well through His people.

Time has passed since this crucial point.  Now, when we get together, we remember all that God has pulled her through.  We reflect on how much God has cared for her.  We are both encouraged and leave each other in awe of what God has done.  And, I always leave her amazed that God continues to use her for me.  How can a single mom of 4 boys still have time to love me and encourage me?  How can she have time or energy to pray for me?  How can she have time to even think about me?  To have a get-away from her own kids and come love on mine?  It is truly amazing.

As we spend time together our Rescuer, Jesus is glorified.  It sounds absurd to say that God is glorified in the midst of such suffering, doesn’t it? Through this friend, I am reminded that God is in the business of redeeming all things.  What Satan intended for evil, God is using for good. He is caring for her in tangible ways and causing others to see His hand in her life.  Not only in His provision for her, but in the joy she is able to possess as she walks through this tough life, and in the way in which He continues to shape her and heal her heart.

On Sunday, we worshiped together side by side for the first time in many years.  She swayed back and forth to the music with joy radiating off of her face as she sang “our struggles here cannot compare to what we have to gain.”  What an amazing gift I have been given in this friend!  And, what hope we have in knowing that this life is a speck on the line of eternity.  Our suffering here is so small in comparison to what we will gain.  What grace He shows us in giving us glimpses of His hand at work now, in the midst of a broken world!