focus

This can be a hard time of year for me.

Four years ago I said good-bye to my dad for the last time as he and my mom headed out on a trip to California.

Oh, if only I'd known that he wouldn't come back.

I would have taken longer to say good-bye.

I would have...the list could go on and on and on.

Allowing myself to look back on the morning he died is horrific for me. The gut wrenching pain and shock can come rolling back very fast. Scary fast.

I don't let myself go there very often in fact.

Instead I try to keep my heart focused on the truths that

God has showed us since that time.

This morning I needed to hear some of those truths and they showed up in my inbox.

(I LOVE how God works. I LOVE seeing how much He loves me...enough to send me encouragement I need before I ask.)

II Corinthians 1:8-9

'We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life. Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead.'

What's most amazing to me about Paul's writing here is that he does not go on and on about the hardship. Although it was more than he could bear! We know it was great, but Paul doesn't expound.

He doesn't focus on it or dwell in it.

Instead he reminds us that the hardship was for a purpose.

A purpose greater than us.

A purpose that we might not fully understand on this earth - but will someday.

A great reminder for me this week.