As I walked back to the hotel tonight, I passed the workers setting up for the Sunday market and suddenly realized we have been in Paris more than a week.\u00a0 Last Sunday we bought some bread, cheese and veggies and had a solemn picnic in the park before going to see how Steve was doing on life support. A week before that I was rushing him to a Russian hospital in a van (that pretended to be an ambulance) at 2 am in the morning.\u00a0 They told me to remember him as he was because they didn\u2019t have much hope.\u00a0 That was 2 weeks ago.<\/p>\n
14 days!<\/p>\n
It seems that life stood still but time kept moving. One thing I\u2019ve learned is that we don\u2019t appreciate how quickly life can change.\u00a0 I\u2019m writing this as my heart is rejoicing over the fact that Steve kissed me back when I told him goodnight tonight.\u00a0 It was a weak kiss but the best kiss ever.\u00a0 How far we have come from multiple organ failure to hearing him say a few words to the girls as they told him they had to leave tomorrow! Thank you Jesus for that gift.<\/p>\n
But, I\u2019m also very aware that there are many tonight who aren\u2019t rejoicing.\u00a0 I know because we\u2019ve heard from them.\u00a0 Many of them.\u00a0 One sweet woman lost her mom this week.\u00a0 Someone else lost their marriage.\u00a0 Another is struggling as her husband is not doing well with cancer and another is watching her dad decline in ICU.\u00a0 My heart aches for them.\u00a0 My soul cries out for the Holy Spirit to comfort them and to wrap them in that unexplainable protection of his love that we have experienced in the last 14 days. Meg and I have talked a lot about how to trust God when things don\u2019t turn out like we\u2019d like them to.\u00a0 I have no answers to that but I hope and pray we can. He has shown himself to be so trustworthy and good to us in the past so how could I not trust him when things get hard?<\/p>\n
I’ve started to believe that the secret to our peace is found in our focus.\u00a0 Are my eyes more focused on, and invested in, this world or in eternity?\u00a0 \u00a0Unfortunately, I think I live most of my life forgetting that the truest reality and the most \u201creal\u201d life will be experienced after death. This is just a dress rehearsal for eternity with God. Many may not agree with me but that\u2019s okay.\u00a0 I hope they\u2019ll come to know the peace, forgiveness and intimacy of being known and loved by an almighty God. It changes things. It changes life.<\/p>\n
Ironically, taking our focus off of this world and placing it on heaven actually gives this life much more beauty, depth, meaning and purpose.\u00a0 I can\u2019t explain it – \u00a0but I\u2019ve lived it.\u00a0 Every gift of love, every breath, every friendship, every kindness…it\u2019s all a gift from God and it becomes sweeter and more precious when I realize just how fragile and how precarious it is. As I enjoy these gifts, I want to do it with gratitude and thanksgiving but with a focus on pointing people to Jesus and the life He offers.<\/p>\n
This life is precious and every good thing in it is a gift from the Father, but REAL life \u2013 eternal life – life that we can\u2019t even comprehend starts when we step over that line of the physical into the spiritual and see Jesus face to face. Knowing him is life.<\/p>\n
I hope this post isn\u2019t insensitive. I realize that my nightmare hasn\u2019t ended like so many others\u2019 and my burdens aren\u2019t as heavy as most around the world. I won\u2019t assume to know how those hurting hearts feel. \u00a0But I do think God gave me a glimpse into the desire he has for his children to keep their eyes firmly set on the author and perfector of their faith. To rediscover the deep truth and reality of heaven as our home.\u00a0 To ponder whether we really see ourselves as citizens of heaven or of this world.\u00a0 After all, doesn\u2019t Scripture say this?<\/p>\n
Our Father breathed this truth into me on May 30, 2018.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s the day Steve took his first breath off of the ventilator.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s the day his sweet mom, our precious Mia, took her first breath in eternity 9 years ago.<\/p>\n
The day she truly started to live a life that I can only imagine.<\/p>\n
And the day God \u00a0said to my heart, “One day you will all experience the life she now knows, but this isn\u2019t that time. I’m giving him back to you for a little while because \u00a0I\u2019m not finished with him yet. I\u2019m doing a new work, can you not see it?\u00a0 Walk in it with passion, purpose and praise and know that death is not the end. \u00a0It\u2019s just the beginning.”<\/p>\n
Thank you, Jesus.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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