God Does Things Like That

Yesterday afternoon my mother-in-law called me at work in a panic. Her twin sister is failing, and the nursing home where she is in rehabilitation care had called to say my mother-in-law might want to come. I'm not sure of the initial diagnosis, but our 76 year old aunt has deteriorated since her hospitalization in November. She has moved from hospital to rehab and back a few times, and is unlikely to make it back home. She and my mother in law have severe asthma, and our aunt now appears to have pneumonia for the third time this year. She has MRSA, and no pancreas - lost that over 5 years ago when it filled with tumors, and honestly, I don't know what else she all has. Many battles. The loss of a pancreas makes her a brittle diabetic which complicates everything.

I took my mother-in-law to the nursing home. It's not the type of place I planned to be just one month after my dad's funeral. Our cousins were huddled discussing options and making phonecalls to other siblings. It was a bit too familiar. It's time to make the call of moving her back to a hospital setting for treatment or leaving her in palliative comfort care. Our aunt is not fully cognizant, the infection and the medications taking over her normally lucid mind. My mother-in-law sat at the end of the bed and tried to make conversation with her beloved sister. Our cousins sought my advice. It seemed too soon to discuss my weeks in intensive care and to recall all the difficult decisions. And yet my recent path made me a resource in their time of grief.

Today I bought a book for a sister in Christ who wrote to tell me she is struggling. I went to the Christian bookstore to pick up our new Bible study guide, and on the $5 deal table was Max Lucado's small book entitled, For the Tough Times: Reaching Toward Heaven for Hope.

Just now I was previewing it, and I came upon an interesting quote: "Or consider Moses, watching flocks in the wilderness. Is this what he intended to do with his life? His heart beats with Jewish blood. His passion is to lead the slaves, so why does God have him leading sheep?...Who would have thought that God was giving Moses forty years of wilderness training in the very desert through which he would lead the people?...God does things like that."

I thought I bought this book for a sister, but God is already speaking to me through it. God does things like that.

God has taken me through an 8.5 year desert journey with my parents - an experience that gives me the empathy and understanding to walk beside others on their similar paths. God does things like that.

I can't tell you the number of times I have been able to open the doors of opportunity at work because I could talk intelligently with senior living administrators about housing options, and tell them of my experience in trying to find the right housing options for my parents. I moved them half a dozen times in 2 years as they travelled rapidly through the stages of care, and now I work for an architecture firm that designs Senior Living spaces. God does things like that.

I'm in a significant desert still, with no oasis in sight. But God is still on His throne. I am not forgotten. This wilderness has a purpose too. I need to keep reminding myself.

Just yesterday I wrote in my journal: "If I was not experiencing xxx, I may not have pursued God as I have." Would I trade the path that has brought me to this place of intimacy with God? That is a very hard question. I'd like to think that I'm deep enough to wildly pursue God even in blessing, but I'm not sure... Are there any effective people of faith who have gotten there through a life of ease?

Psalm 11:3-4
"When all that is good falls apart,
what can good people do?"
The LORD is in his holy temple;
the LORD sits on his throne in heaven.

"His [David the psalmist's] point is unmistakable: God is unaltered by our storms. He is undeterred by our problems. He is unfrightened by these problems. He is in his holy temple. He is on his throne in heaven.
"Buildings may fall, careers may crumble, but God does not. Wreckage and rubble have have never discouraged him. God has always turned tragedy into triumph." -Max Lucado