I’ve found that even though I’m 43 years old, there is still this need for me to gain my dads approval. When I write a new post, I send him the link to check it out. I kinda hold my breath a bit, waiting to see what he will say. The other day when I wrote was no different. I typed out a bit about my experience with loss and the suffering that follows. He reminded me of verses we shared in December. It’s found in the book of John. It appears that some followers of Christ stopped following him because his teaching was hard to accept. Then this happens. “So Jesus said to the Twelve, ‘You don’t want to go away too, do you?’ Simon Peter answered, ‘Lord, to whom will we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.” (John 6:67-69)

I looked back in my Bible and this was the passage that I read days after this past death. It was the words I needed and exactly what my heart knew to be true. My dad texted back these wise words, “I absolutely hate some of the significant losses we’ve faced. However, our options as Christians are limited…and that’s a good thing. Because it brings us back inevitably to the only One that can really help.” To deny how we feel about a situation and pretend everything is ok, just isn’t being real. However, being able to find comfort in your suffering, that is only done by the One living inside of you.

I’ll tell you this and not in a boastful way, but as a testimony to this being true. I had gone to the doctor for weeks by myself for sonograms and blood work during the last pregnancy. When you’ve had 7 children, this all can become routine. This day turned out to be nothing like I had expected. You see the heart beating and the little body forming week after week. Then the next time you go, the heart has stopped and mine did a little too that day. My doctor, nurse and sonogram tech were beyond kind. I was hugged and comforted with such compassion. Then it was time for me to leave the office, which is in a hospital, and I wasn’t sure I could do it. How do you walk out after you walked in excited, but you are leaving completely crushed? There was only one option. I needed the Lord’s help. He would enable me and he did. Not only that, but when I passed people walking in, I looked into their eyes and smiled. Because I did not know what news they would leave with or maybe what loved one they were visiting in the hospital. So, I gave what I had and knew it was not in my own strength.

If you keep reading in the book of John, you come to this truth. “I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. You will have suffering in this world. Be courageous! I have conquered the world.” (John 16:33) It’s true. Our only real peace, joy, comfort and help comes from the One who conquered the world. We can live courageously knowing to whom we belong and what he has done. We can keep close to the One who offers us an entire book, the Bible, filled with words of life. Don’t go a day without filling your mind and heart with these words. You can not give what you do not have. Trust me, it makes all the difference.