Word for Today, Mon, 16 Aug 2005: Why?
Posted by: masinick <masinick@...>
Dear friends,
Welcome back to the daily edition of Word for Today. I pray that
you have had a good weekend. Did you attend your local church?
Have you been reading your Bible every day? These are things we
need to do regularly, and they are also things we need to
encourage others to do. By reading God's Word, we know the
Spirit of God. By attending church, we also encourage one another
and we follow God's intentions for our lives.
The last time I wrote to you, I wrote about some of my difficult
circumstances and how God has used them in my life to draw me
closer to Him.
This morning, I spoke on the phone with Betty Picard. Betty is a
member of the small church we attend. Like our family, she is a
charter member of our church. Like us, the Picards are going
through an extreme test of faith right now. Betty's husband,
Ron, is about a year younger than I am. Ron married Betty not
even two years ago. For Ron, it was his first marriage. Ron
spent many years caring for his ailing parents. A few years ago
now, both of them passed away.
Not long after Ron's parents died, Ron met Betty. They found
things in common that they did not have a chance to express or
appreciate in anyone else ever before. After a courtship, Ron
and Betty married. All was well.
Not very long after that, Ron began to experience a number of
health issues. He kept getting tested. Doctors thought that he
might be diabetic. He changed his diet. That did not help very
much at all.
Day to day pains persisted, but Ron and Betty did have great
happiness and contentment together. Then one day, one of the
doctors came to a new conclusion about what was troubling Ron. He
found cancer! What a shock, and what an ordeal! It just didn't
seem fair! Ron had given his life to taking care of his own
parents and was just starting his own "life", so to speak.
Finally, he found someone he could care for and someone who could
love him!
Ron and Betty went through the whole cycle: denial, anger...
maybe you've been there with something in your life.
Back to this morning. Another milestone. Ron is at a stage
where he is, more than likely, facing the last days of his life.
His cancer has stretched toward his brain and is affecting basic
functions. Ron is going to go to hospice care today.
My four year old boy, Karsten, absolutely loves Ron. Betty
called this morning to give us an update and to see if Karsten
can visit "The Picards". Betty and I ended up in a tearful
conversation.
We agreed that we just cannot understand what has happened and
why it is happening. At the same time, we are grateful for our
church friends, our loved ones, for the day to day provisions
that God gives us, and in a strange way, the adversity.
We reflected on the fact that though the times and the
circumstances are not pleasant, we have both found that God has
always been able to see us through. More than that, we mutually
shared that since we have found Christ, we have a hope that
defies our circumstances.
Ron probably will die sometime soon. Betty will once again be
without a husband. However, she has an eternal hope that she did
not have a few years ago. She will deeply miss Ron, and yet,
even as she is preparing to "lose" him, after only recently
finding him, she is setting her mind on the goodness of the Lord.
Please do join me in praying for Ron as he continues to live,
that God will comfort his body as long as Ron has it, and comfort
Ron's spirit, preparing him for his eternal rest. Pray for Betty
and her son Jonathan. They were alone for a long time. It seems
that they may be alone again, yet this time, they know that they
are never really alone, for Christ is beside them. Pray for our
church family, that we can be a source of comfort and
encouragement to the Picards.
I pray that each of you have your own stories that you can tell
to others how God is working in your life, even with the lump of
clay that still needs work!
1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the
Father of mercies and God of all comfort; 1:4 who comforts us in
all our affliction, that we may be able to comfort those who are
in any affliction, through the comfort with which we ourselves
are comforted by God. 1:5 For as the sufferings of Christ abound
to us, even so our comfort also abounds through Christ. 1:6 But
if we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation. If we
are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you the
patient enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer.
1:7 Our hope for you is steadfast, knowing that, since you are
partakers of the sufferings, so also are you of the comfort.
2 Corinthians 1:3-7, World English Bible, (WEB, freely available
at ebible.org/bible/web/.
Yours in Christ,
Brian
___________________________
--
Brian Masinick, mailto:masinick@yahoo.com
Home page: http://www.geocities.com/masinick/
____________________________________________________
Start your day with Yahoo! - make it your home page
http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs