LIFE

Saturday night we attended a Jeff and Sheri Easter concert in our little town. The only negative thing about the show was the pre-show. It seemed endless. Beside I have this thing about people who seem kinda fake. It just drives me crazy.

Anyway, I'll quit complaining and get on with my thoughts.

During the concert, Sheri Easter shared some different tidbits about her recent bout with breast cancer. She talked about all the treatments and the thoughts , songs, and experiences that occurred during that experience. A few songs she wrote during that time....etc....

After intermission, before what was supposed to be the last song (but wasn't), she shared a thought she had during her whole experience. It was a thought about LIFE. She said she had thought about it on more than one occasion how some people think that their trials are God's punishment to them or along those lines. But it all boils down to LIFE. LIFE Happens! It may be due to different reasons that we may have brought on....taking certain meds, eating certain foods, etc.....She made it clear that God is not up in heaven pointing his fingers at different individuals saying - "Ok, I'm going to give you cancer, I'm going to do this to you, I'm going to do that to you....."

LIFE just somehow happens. But when LIFE happens, God provides the strength to get you through LIFE - whatever the circumstances may be. Then on the other side of that issue of LIFE has taught you lessons that you would have never learned any other way. And on the other side of that LIFE event, you can put your arm around someone who's never walked that road before and say, I've been there. It somehow gives them hope to know that someone's been there and has come out on the other side victorious.

These thoughts have been swirling around in my head since Saturday night and I've had plenty to think about. I have thought of the challenges and heartaches in the lives of my different family members and friends that LIFE has presented in the the last year or so.

The first human response is to rail at God our frustrations at how he could have allowed this to happen and why He doesn't prevent it. If He consistently prevented pain or in this instance, LIFE, we would be so spoiled rotten we would be intolerable. If He consistently prevented pain, we would also be able to solve the age old question of why bad things happen to good people. At the same time, if He consistently prevented pain in His children, we would never know how good Victory tasted! There's nothing more wonderful than a sweet victory. Nothing. Somehow, one taste of a victory, makes the pain not as horrible as it seemed - even though at the time, it seemed merciless.

Standing on the victorious side of LIFE, when you put your arms across the shoulder of those who are standing on the threshold of what LIFE once held for you, the power of the HOPE you have to offer gives you an unusual sense of thankfulness that you have arrived at that moment to offer such hope.

When I think along this line of thoughts, it reminds me of a song a little trio of brothers and a sister sang a few weeks ago in our youth service....the paraphrase of the song went like this......"you won't find my bones in the valley that I've left behind - all you'll see are the footprints that tell you I was there."

With all that being said, here's the song that they sang that I really love concerning LIFE...