In Crisis

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses … (Hebrews 12:1)

Exactly two years ago today, I posted this picture of myself on Facebook as I prepared to have breast cancer surgery. I took every post, comment, email, and text and made this actual prayer chain to place around my neck and rest on my shoulders …

Certainly, that big “C” was a crisis time in my life. But it’s done and over. I survived. I tried to stay positive. I tried to trust in the Lord. And He carried me, on His shoulders, through it all.

“Let the beloved of the Lord rest secure in him, for he shields him all day long, and the one the Lord loves rests between his shoulders. (Deuteronomy 33:12)

Several years prior to that, a crisis too. My beloved mom was dying, I was going through a divorce, and my son was heading off to Iraq.

Before that, I was in financial distress and my marriage was crumbling.

Then there was the time when I joined the Navy: far from home – the comforts, securities, the familiarity of home. All that change certainly created stress for me.

You, however, know all about my teaching, my way of life, my purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance, persecutions, sufferings – what kinds of things happened to me in Antioch, Iconium and Lystra, the persecutions I endured. 

Yet the Lord rescued me from all of them. (2 Timothy 3:10-11)

Are you in a place where you’re feeling like Paul did writing to Timothy? Look back. Go back decade by decade as I did. Was there a crisis – you didn’t think would ever end, much less survive.

Yet the Lord rescued me from all of them.

The Lord rescued me from all of them.

I remain confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord. (Psalm 27:13-14)