Praise Him in Joy and in Sorrow

Eat, Love, Praise Him

In times of joy and in times of sorrow? Yes! Especially, in times of sorrow. He is the master planner. He is sovereign. For these reasons we can know the times are sorrow are for His purpose, too. As it reads in Jeremiah 29: He knows the plans He has for us. It doesn’t say the time it takes for Him to fulfill His plans in us.

Sorrow comes from pain and hurt and disappointment and confusion, but joy comes in times of sorrow knowing God is sovereign, relying upon Him to make sense of those times, and accepting that even the times that bring us the greatest sorrow are of Him.

Psalm 136, NIV reads, in part:

Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good. His love endures forever.
Give thanks to him who alone does great wonders. His love endures forever.
Give thanks to Him who by His understanding made the heavens. His love endures forever.
Give thanks to Him who divided the Red Sea. His love endures forever.
Give thanks to Him who led His people through the desert. His love endures forever.
Give thanks to the One who remembered us in our low estate. His love endures forever.
Give thanks to Him who gives food to every creature. His love endures forever.
Give thanks to the God of heaven. His love endures forever.

He is sovereign. We are here by His divine will, His divine breath.
He ordains when and that we are born and die from this earthly life.

Today it is with deep sorrow that I lead to find joy in Him.
A special child of God is struggling with a rare form of cancer and fighting for her life.
Her mother and family by her side, they find a way to find strength and hope and joy and delight in her life.

I pray it is not in God’s plans to give Mary Evelyn angel wings just yet and I pray that in His mercy He might come to her rescue with a miracle healing. I know that God is caring and loving and compassionate. His ways are not our ways.

In her short life, she has brought a community together in prayer. She has brought great joy and light to her family. Our compassionate God has given her family and friends time in this journey. Time for laughing and loving and playing and sharing, in spite of the cancer she is fighting.

Our loving God gave her family an opportunity to create family memories at Disney World just last month. And, for Mary Evelyn to feel like a princess as she tried on pageant gowns and sparkling ball gowns at Once in a Lifetime Events while her mother admired her and praised her. She was truly as sparkling and dazzling as any princess.

How confusing to us that such a delightful child, or any child, or any soul would have to battle such an ugly, unforgiving disease. Many do everyday in hospitals everywhere.
We go along our daily lives so often ambivalent to the suffering in our own communities. Certainly, we could offer our prayers for comfort and healing.

Mary Evelyn’s experience has reminded me to pray heartily for others in need. For those who are in a daily battle with medical conditions, whose time on this earth is jarred by events not possible of our human understanding. We are reminded that even in this; our God has a plan to bring it to a greater good; to increase the quality of time together, to jar a community of people, to leave an everlasting imprint upon our hearts.

I am brought back to Psalm 136 in which God’s endless love never fails. Even when in our human understanding, we can not make sense of sorrow such as this. God’s love, His compassion, His mercy never fails.

Rare is anything that compares with the sorrow involving a child. I am quickly reminded of the fragility of life. I stop in my tracks to beg forgiveness of our Lord. How shallow I have been with my own life, with the blessings He continues to shower me with. How I take His provision for granted.

I take pause to recount, no longer counting all my troubles as in prayers of the past week. And, indeed, by society’s standards, I have plenty to recount: unemployment, loss of income, financial crisis, maladies, physical recovery from an accident and so on, but in reflection, I have lost my focus on all the Lord has abundantly supplied.

The Lord is our great provider. The Psalm confirms, He provides for every creature great and small. And, He has provided for me and my family-shelter, food, clothing, just enough of our needs to be attended to and not enough to bring us to complacency, so that we might be completely dependent upon Him and lean into Him with deeper yearning.

My health is strong, though I might have a limp in my walk due to my knee trauma, I function. Though my daughter required a month of physical therapy, He stopped the damaged vehicle within one inch of her and provided her safety. Though I might be battling maladies, as do my children, they are nothing as the battle cancer requires.
Though my husband was sent to war, he returned without physical harm. Though my children act out as teenagers, they are home safe and sound and at night.

I am not talking about “all the starving children in India or China” as you may have heard in your childhood, someone always has it worse than you and you should be grateful for the lima beans on your plate, I am talking about our habits of focusing on our lack instead of our habits praying for others in their true battles; not battles of Life, but battles for Life.

I am suggesting a complete re-framing of our thoughts. To focus on the joy in spite of the sorrow. To see God’s abundant blessings, in spite of the constant obstacles and struggles we juggle daily. I am suggesting that we take time to be truly thankful for our Lord’s provision and to truly Joy in our Lord.

I pray that God has a different plan for Mary Evelyn and her family than circumstances would suggest, but I know God delights in His child, Mary Evelyn, and has given her a life of significance and that her family has been abundantly blessed as have her friends and community.

Thank you, Father for the love and support that surrounds her. Thank you, Father for the medical care and providers and the quality of care she is able to have in her time of need simply by being placed right here in our community. Thank you, Father for her smile, for the twinkle in her eye, for her life that reminds us to live in joy and to give thanks to you.