Living in the Unexpected...

Tell everyone who is discouraged, be strong and don't be afraid!  God is coming to your rescue!  
~ Isaiah 35:4

Years ago I watched a friend of mine seek treatment for a rare kind of cancer.  She successfully completed treatment, only to be cancer free, but then die from an opportunistic bacteria that invaded her body, weakened from cure.  Her immune system was too weak to fight the bacteria, and she died.  It was a struggle to watch, especially when she thought the worst was behind her.

It's very easy to let things become overwhelming when you find that what you had hoped for doesn't seem to appear in a way that you had wanted, or even prayed to receive.

I hear prayers for healing nearly each day as I visit my hospice patients.  When the patient dies, and family members share how they prayed that the person would be healed, I remind them that "healing" takes place in many different ways.

I used to think that I would have a list of things that I would ask God when I arrived in heaven.  Somehow thinking that I would have the opportunity to have a face to face with the great Creator of ALL things and for me to ask, "On this day, why didn't YOU do THIS?" 

Yeah, right?

But we do things like that.  I don't know if it is some way for us to understand why it is that something happens, or if, there is some way that we are holding God responsible for when things don't go the way that we had hoped.

The human condition is sometimes just what it sounds like, "conditional."  We live in an imperfect world and we make poor choices at times.  When it comes to our health, where we live, and even those we create relationships with.  For every decision we make, there are often options.  It's just the way that the world exists.  Some how we must be the living Christ for others in this existence, while striving to understand when our own life situations may not turn out the way that we hoped.

I don't want to say that it totally depends on God, but our dependence on God helps us when things don't work out.  So often we are quick to say that "It was just God's plan."  It's an easy response to a much bigger picture that often we look at with limited vision.

Praying that each day we find ways to include God in all moments of our lives.  

Stay in God's grip!

G. Todd Williams (c) 2021 stayingodsgrip.com