Tearful Thursday
After a joy-filled Christmas in July at Union Rescue Mission this Wednesday that found Santa and me being buried by smiling, shrieking 1st time snowball throwing children having the time of their lives, I found myself trying to rest my tired body as I worked through a pile of papers in my office on Thursday.
Late in the day the young widow of my colleague and friend stopped by to chat. She is wrestling with the question of “why.” She and I agreed that her husband and also my Dad are in a better place, healed and now whole, possibly walking the Streets of Gold together, and they are no longer suffering. However, when she prays in the future for people to be healed from their illness, she wants to be able to pray with a full belief that God will choose to heal them, and she does not want to pray doubting or half-heartedly. I shared what I know from the Bible and I shared from my own experiences, and my own waves of grief that have been flowing over me since the death of my Father and her husband, but mostly I just sat and shared tears with her.
After she left, I went to the URM cafeteria to greet our families and children and sit with my little praying buddies at dinner time. A mom, who had made the mistake of leaving our facility early, quite likely for the man in her life, had come back to us needing a place to stay. She had her precious big deep blue-eyed 1 year baby boy with her. I told her that she could stay; we would make room somewhere for her and her little guy, who was cracking a half smile at me while I tickled his feet. She began to weep, and everyone at the table began to sing to her softly, “Call on me Sister, when you need a hand…” and one of our lady staff came to console her. It was hard to hold back my tears.
On my home, I heard Rabbi Josephson on KNX 1070 AM radio, saying, when tragedy strikes, don’t waste time asking the “Why?” questions. “Why did God bring this tragedy into my life?” “Why didn’t God spare me this trouble or sickness?” He said instead know that God is with you through this tragedy, trouble, loss and time of grief. Instead of asking “why” ask “what are God and I going to do together with what is left of my life?” I appreciated hearing that at the end of this day. I am going to share this with the young widow and the abandoned mom at URM.
If you, like me, have suffered the loss of a loved one, the exit of a co-worker, or the lesser loss of the disappearance of your 401K and you are struggling, know that God is with you and ask Him, “what are you and I going to do to make the most of the rest of my life?”
Blessings, Andy B.