Today has been sad and somber filled. There is a sadness hanging in the air, thick as the humidity of a mid-August day in the south.
A dear friend has begun another part of her journey as she passed this morning from her earthly life.
A childhood friend of my wife, she has been battling leukemia for the better part of three years spending the past several weeks in a coma.
Words are difficult to come by at this time. All that can be offered from our hearts are prayers and thoughts of love and caring for her family.
Forty-seven is too young to leave this world and we offer sympathy, prayers, and many words unspoken to a father, a mother, a brother, and especially, a twin sister.
Linda, you are and will be sorely missed by all whose lives you touched with your smiles and easy laughter…

On the Death of a Twin Wm. Strode

Where are yee now, Astrologers, that looke
For petty accidents in Heavens booke?
Two Twins, to whom one Influence gave breath,
Differ in more than Fortune, Life and Death.
While both were warme (for that was all they were
Unlesse some feeble cry sayd Life was there
By wavering change of health they seem’d to trie
Which of the two should live, for one must die.
As if one Soule, allotted to susteine
The lumpe, which afterwards was cutt in twain,
Now servde them both: whose limited restraynt
From double vertue made them both to faynt:
But when that common Soule away should flie,
Death killing one, expected both should die:
Shee hitt, and was deceivde: that other parte
Went to supply the weake survivers heart:
So Death, where shee was cruell, seemde most milde:
She aymed at two, and killde but halfe a childe.

Many times throughout this journey, this adventure of life, I have felt deeply lost along the way. Yet, at the same time, not really lost. Alone. Not feeling the guidance which I believed was needed at a particular point along the path. Knowing though, that in that darkness, the light was still there, only hidden. By my choice? Maybe. By another’s? Possibly. But for what reason? Why is it necessary for each one of us to experience our own “dark night of the soul”?

I have found in my life that those were the times that offered much more growth than I would have had otherwise. These times allowed me opportunities to pray with such fervency, “I believe, help my unbelief”¹. Isn’t that what happens to each of us when we feel such abandonment by God? When we feel we have been left in the midst of turmoil to survive by our own devices? We easily come to believe that we are to solve all our issues on out own when the reality is far different. It is in these times we need His guidance more than ever.

We’ve not been abandoned. We have been given opportunity. A grand opportunity in the midst of our cries of despair and crises. A chance to stretch our faith. A chance to fall back on Him who is always near though we may not be aware of that closeness. A chance to ask Him to help our unbelief.

Yes, we do have many times in our lives where we believe we are deeply lost along the way. But we do well to remember that we are not truly lost. It is in this darkness that we are given a chance to ask Him, not for what we want, but for what we need, which He already knows. But he waits patiently and quietly for us to approach and ask. And it will be given.

1. Mk 9:24

One need not tell god everything about the people for whom one prays. Holding them one by one steadily before the mind and willing that God may have His will with them is the best, for God knows better than we what our friends need, yet our prayer releases His power, we know not how.¹

1. Laubach, Frank C., Letters by a Modern Mystic

A Lenten Prayer

Ash Wednesday
A forty day journey begins
A lament, a calling, a cry out
To the one who creates,
The one who saves and makes us
Whole.
We come to you in brokenness.
We come to you in heartache.
We come to you from wrong roads,
Having departed from the path
You have set before us.

Though we may not know,
We hunger for you, crave your
Touch in our lives
To relieve the suffering,
To heal our pain,
To bring us the terrible sweet joy
Of this journey toward the cross

We offer ourselves
Broken and contrite
To your mercy and love.
We come to you mourning and
Ask to be filled with your joy.
We come to you faithless and
Ask for our faith to be restored.

We begin again as we have
So many times before
Looking to you,
Stepping out on our journey,
Following as you would have us,
To shine your light in this world
Of darkness

Hold us each in your gentle loving hand,
Molding, guiding, loving us,
As we look to deepen our loving relationship
With you our
Father
Creator
Abba

Amen