turning...

This has been a week that no one really wants to see and yet God has shown Himself in some very cool ways. Within 24 hours of each other I sat with a family as they told their twin 8 year-olds that their father had passed away and then I received word that some good friends of mine had also experienced lose. Both were hard to swallow. Both lead to unanswerable questions. Both can not be explained away. Both really, really suck!

Then I was struggling with how to lead Bible study Wednesday night and Allison suggested we just praise and worship. My first thought was selfish b/c I tend to put a lot more time planning something like that than I had left in the day. But God kept nudging me in that direction. So I picked out some songs and then said "Ok, God, You know what you are doing."...and boy does He ever.

Wednesday night we prayed and sang and held hands and lifted each other up and sat still and cried and worshiped and experienced THE almighty God. At the end of it all one person came up to me and said, "tonight, we had church."

Wednesday I cried for all my friends. Mostly during the most random moments. Wednesday night I worshiped with those tears. Now yesterday and today I've worshiped God with what He has graciously given me. I've walked on the beach holding hands with my wife...the greatest Christian I've ever known...and I've played with and hugged my daughter, the personification of adventure.

As I sit here thinking back over this week God has put Jeremiah 31:13b in front of me...
"I will turn their mourning into gladness;
I will give them comfort and joy instead of sorrow."

I don't know how God does it but He is the only one who is able to turn mourning into gladness.
Don't ever forget that God is able to do anything...even comfort when it doesn't seem possible.