Blessed Monotony

Today I read a story about a young pastor in Texas that has a brain tumor. This tumor will most likely kill him. The story was gut-wrenching, but inspiring and authentic, spoken from a man gaining wisdom a mile a minute in the face of sorrow. I also read the blog of a young family preparing for the impending birth of their first child, but here's the heartbreaker...their child has only a brain stem--no brain--and will die within hours of birth--if he survives the pregnancy. They will say hello and goodbye to their only son in the same day.

Both of these stories tore at my emotions today and tears stained the desk where I sat. Life is scary. And unpredictable. And unfair. But God is Good. Why does He allow these things to happen to people who love Him so much? I don't fully understand the answer to that question, but I do know that we run to Him in sorrow far faster than we run to Him in plenty. I know that we yearn for His grace much more when fall down than when we walk tall. And He changes us from the inside out during these times. He changes us to be like Him. We are a stubborn people and as my hero, Oswald Chambers says, "Sometimes God needs to wreck a life to save it."

I know that knowing these things doesn't make suffering any easier. But the fact that God is in control, for some reason, always comforts me. The fact that nothing takes Him by surprise gives me peace--even when really rotten things happen.

We will all suffer. That is a given. Today, as I read these sad, sad stories, I was so thankful for normality--normal, everyday monotony. Same old, same old is just fine with me--new normals are hard, sometimes very hard, and for today I'll just stick "wit' what I got." Who knows what tomorrow may bring?

"O, LORD, how many are my foes!

How many rise up against me!

Many are saying of me, 'God will not deliver him.'

But you are a shield around me, O LORD; you bestow glory on me and lift up my head."

Psalm 3:1-3