I’m feeling it today.

We always hear “when it rains it pours”… Another Murphyism I suppose. You know I like Murphy ~ well maybe not like; make that, relate to.

The burdens start to come and seem to pile on bit by bit. My toaster broke last week… if you can call completely melting a child’s beefy plastic spoon in it as broken (I should KNOW better – always look inside things before using them when there are curious grandkids on the prowl). Now the iron burned out yesterday – literally went up in smoke unprovoked (we use this every day – I mean, it was a nice one, with the retractable cord).

Finances have been a challenge with a transition in jobs. Not sure what is going to happen with our health insurance. I have a lot of homework to do that is very technical, read: difficult, for me, trying to squeeze it in here. But those are such tiny minuscule things compared to the burdens that I’ve been feeling for actual people.

Such as my dear friend whose husband is in a prison being brutalized for his faith… not just any prison, but a deadly Iranian prison, where the whole family faces the very real possibility that if God doesn’t intervene they may never see him again.

And another very precious friend whose husband was so burdened down he just took his life; now the family is left behind with so much pain – they will definitely not be seeing him again this side of earth. And while they have the assurance of the love of God in his life and knowing he is now safe, they live with the dreadful burden of that memory that only a sovereign God can heal. I didn’t sleep much last night.

Just got the word this morning that yet another friend’s husband is dying from stage four cancer, and she is struggling with many things and would like prayer. There are simply no guarantees in this life

I’m concerned about my husbands new health issues, my one daughter’s particular on-going health struggle with nursing her baby, my other daughter’s pregnancy and sleep challenges, and another daughter’s stomach issues and life transition that need some serious wisdom and care. Been praying and helping, deeply concerned for a niece that was desperately trying to adopt a daughter and get the house ready for all their requirements against a boat-load of odds, another niece facing possible surgery, and a nephew in life challenges.

It’s all on my mind and in my heart, just like your burdens are in yours. We carry these.

Life happens. And it brings with it many challenges. Many, many challenges! It’s called H U M A N I T Y.   And we will be dealing with this until we leave humanity for the supernatural state of eternity in heaven. Not that there aren’t also great things here on this earth, but wow, I’m really looking forward to that release without the tragic human experience.

But these really hard experiences do actually have their place – and their point. They shape us, and we have a quite a big part in the way in which we will be shaped by our response. When I was trying to type in “brutalized for his faith” it kept auto-correcting to “fertilized for his faith”… I was getting frustrated and kept telling it NO! (as if it can hear me).  But maybe God was trying to speak to me through that annoying little feature that makes up some ridiculous word exchanges when I don’t want them (even that can be used by God – He’s so creative!).

We ARE being fertilized for our faith… things are put on us that can make our faith stronger and grow bigger, more visible and useful. Things that feel like uh, crap…and well, death. “Unless a seed falls in the ground and dies it won’t bring any fruit”….

With that, I am in the middle of preparing a workshop for a woman’s conference, on stress. 😉 Talk about living it. I guess that’s a good thing to have real empathy, not that I needed it – I already knew!

Thank you, dear Lord Jesus, that you know ALL that, even better than I do. You could have just come down one day fully grown, a perfect untouched human specimen and sacrificed Your life that way. But You deliberately chose to live here on this earth, and You walked where we walked in the frail tent of human flesh, blood, and emotion – feeling, suffering, desiring, loving ~ experiencing that tragic human experience. You get it.

Ohhh. So that’s why You did it.  I can relate to YOU even more than Murphy. ❤