My family has lost a lot in our lives and at times it stings and the wave of loss can overwhelm us. My husband has lost his mother and two brothers and both sets of grandparents and the majority of his extended family. I have lost my father and step-father, as well as both sets of grandparents. Some of this loss for us was at very young ages. It’s been a lot. But there are blessings in the midst that have been revealed if we choose to look up, trusting God in it all. We can focus on what we don’t have or what we have lost, or we can choose to find the blessings and look for the hand of God through it all. Every time I seek Him, I find Him, and He graciously has given me a glimpse of an eternal purpose through it all.
Each person has left behind an imprint on our lives; a special place that only they can fill. Each one’s choices have impacted our life forever in one-way or another and their story lives on.
Legacy is something we leave behind. But our legacy is the result of the choices we make in our daily lives. Each day brings a new opportunity with blessings that we can miss because it’s much easier to focus on what we have lost and the hardship of today. God is in the middle of it and He tells us that His ways are higher than our ways. His thoughts are higher than our thoughts. What does this mean? This means there are times when we will not understand and there are times when life won’t make sense, but understanding His plan is not what He calls us to do.
“As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” Isaiah 55:9 (NIV)
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: ’Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these. Mark 12: 30-31
He calls us to seek a relationship with Him; to love Him with all our heart, soul and mind. He also calls us to love our neighbor as ourselves. This is where we can get stuck. This is where we often want to dethrone God in the midst of our struggles with the desire for everything to be filtered through our hands instead of His. Loving others as ourselves: this is where our earthly relationships run deep. They can run deep in pain. They can run deep in love. The pain of losing someone that we love as much as our self is devastating.
God knows this pain. If we choose to love Him and seek Him first, He becomes our lifeline when the waves come. He begins to show us the calm that will come once He settles the storm, though we first must learn to trust Him in it.
Our world seems to be filled with chaos as we globally fight this virus. Our normal has been flipped and lives are being changed forever. But God is there. He knows our pain and He will make good out of all this. I am confident of that because I choose to stand on His promises.
“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to His purpose.” Romans 8:28 (NIV)
I am so thankful for the people God has put in my life. We have blessings that are the perfect picture of God making good out of the pain, like my husband’s bonus mom, Brenda and our bonus Dad, Perry. My family has grieved together on many levels and our relationships run deep despite the pain, as we draw closer to each other, but more importantly to God.
We each have today. We have a choice of whom we will love. Will we choose to love God and each other, or will we choose to focus on ourselves and what we have or don’t have? The choice is ours.
Then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, but as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord. Joshua 24:15 (NIV)
Tecia Farmer Janes
Founder/Director of CHM
