we are promised

sometimes when it rains
it just plain pours

today i am thinking of
and praying for
a special family
who are so dear to me.

i have been friends with one particular
member of the family for over 30 years-
i was always at her house growing up
and know her whole family very well.

this past spring she lost her sister very unexpectedly,
she was in her 50's.
the family was grieving over this sudden loss
when out of the blue my friend calls me,
she tells me about her niece...
a daughter of the deceased sister
who was just diagnosed with breast cancer
and she calls me because i have been
through a breast cancer diagnosis' twice now
and she is asking for help...
we talked, and talked and reconnected-

i told her i would be praying
for this sweet family who are still reeling from
a death of a sister and now a niece with breast cancer...
i reassured her i would contact the niece and
do what i could for her.

this same exact day, that we talk
my friend finds out
her elderly mother in hawaii,
passed away suddenly!

my poor little friend,
when it rains it pours-

my husband's side of the family
had something like this a few years ago
his brother died at the age of 49 from a heart attack
i was re-diagnosed with breast cancer and then
his dad died of a heart attack-
we were walking around numb!
just crazy, numb...

this is when i am
reminded that
i cannot do it alone.
when you are so broken
that all you can do is fall
on your knees...
when sometimes
words won't even come,
and all you can do is
groan...

this is when my faith
becomes my life raft.
when Jesus intercedes for me.
when i am wrapped in his
comfort and love.

i am praying today
for my friend and her
whole family-
that they would know
they too, are loved.

2 Corinthians 1:8-10

English Standard Version (ESV)

 ⁸For we do not want you to be ignorant, brothers,^[a] of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. ⁹Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God* who raises the dead. ¹⁰ He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope* that he will deliver us again.

*my emphasis