Marking Time

22 Wednesday Feb 2012

Posted by Seeking Peace in joy, Rick Ross, suffering

Today is a hard anniversary for very close friends. Some of you may know the store of Rick and Beverly Ross and the tragic loss of their daughter, Jenny, a wife to David and mother to Malaya. I hurt for them and my heart is heavy for them on this day.

Why does God let these things happen? It’s a question I’ve asked about personal situations in the past because I believe God can do anything, but he doesn’t always do the thing we want him to do. Why do moms die leaving 3 children with a father who kills himself 4 months later? Why do children die? Why does an 11 year old have bone cancer? Why do families fall apart? These are questions I often ask wondering what God is doing.

Why did God give his own son to die for me? It’s another question I ask wondering what God was thinking.

I remind myself from time to time that God knows suffering. He knows extreme, intense pain. Why is that I’m expecting I won’t have to face it or my friends won’t have to face it when God made a choice that caused great suffering. His son didn’t simply die. God allowed it to happen for a bigger purpose.

Is my suffering going to be for a bigger purpose? Will my friend’s suffering be for a bigger purpose? I don’t know but I do know the pain doesn’t go away. In whole or in part, it will remain.

So the question becomes will we trust God when the world crumbles? Will we hold onto our faith? There were days I didn’t know if I would or if I could but another question always lingered. It’s a question Rick Ross asked me when I felt my world was going completely dark. Where else will you go?

So we mark time. We mark the times of our suffering and the reminder that follow and we mark time until we leave this place of suffering and join the party to be united with God. I will live out my days with joy for the blessings I experience, with pain for the wounds I’ve experienced and marking time while crying out, Lord, come quickly!

Grace and peace to you.

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Grief and Idols

12 Wednesday Oct 2011

Posted by Seeking Peace in death, idol worship, idols, loss, Rick Ross

≈ 1 Comment

I appreciate my friend Rick Ross so much. One of the things I appreciate is his sharing of what he has learned through a extremely painful event in his life. He’s been speaking in class about some of the things he learned and he made a comment yesterday that has stuck with me. I wish I could remember it exactly but I will give my rendition. We must be careful we don’t let what we grieve become an idol in our life.

I’d never thought about something I lose becoming an idol but it’s true. I have likely come close at times to letting something I grieve become an idol, become something that I hold more dear than anything else, something I could almost worship by giving more attention and focus to what I lost than what God wants to give me.

What if you lost all your money?

What if you lost your health?

What if you lost your spouse?

What if you lost your child?

Would the loss of any of those things consume you? For some people a loss can do just that – consume them. What a dangerous situation that can sneak up on me if I’m not aware, not prepared for how a loss can transform my life.

I appreciated the reminder of how to keep life in perspective and keep God in focus for my life.

Grace and peace to you.

Retry

27 Wednesday Jul 2011

Posted by Seeking Peace in NASCAR, Nelms, Prayer, Rick Ross

≈ 2 Comments

After 4 edits of today’s original post, I give up and will borrow a link from Josh Graves.

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This is a preacher who loves him some NASCAR.

Love me some NASCAR

I’m not going to go into how Jesus taught us to pray and make any comparisons (as if) or contrasts.

Here’s a link to my good friend’s blog if you want to read more on prayer and how Jesus’ idea may be a little different than Pastor Nelms

Thoughts on Prayer

I’m not condemning Pastor Nelms or suggesting Rick knows all there is to know about prayer. I mean, can you really hate a guy who prays for his smoking hot wife? Just trying to be fair and balanced today.

Grace and peace to you. Ivar gaJsHost = ((“https:” == document.location.protocol) ? “https://ssl.” : “http://www.”); document.write(unescape(“%3Cscript src='” + gaJsHost + “google-analytics.com/ga.js’ type=’text/javascript’%3E%3C/script%3E”)); try { var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker(“UA-12356560-1”); pageTracker._trackPageview(); } catch(err) {}