Faith, Hope and Love

Imagine for a moment that you are awaiting the birth of your first child. You dream big dreams for her life. The things you'll do together. What she'll be when she grows up. Her daddy, proudly walking her down the aisle to her beloved on her wedding day. Sunshine and happiness. The dreams of a mother's heart.

Now, fast forward a few years. Your daughter, whom you have cherished since the beginning, cannot go to school. She is disruptive, mean, even dangerous to her classmates. You take her to doctor after doctor, try medicine after medicine. Nothing helps. Finally, with a broken heart, all your dreams for her shattered, you admit her to a residential facility for kids with severe emotional, mental and health issues. She can't cope in the regular world.

Fast forward another few years, years that include countless phone calls from the "facility" she calls home telling you she tried to kill herself again. Phone calls telling you she drank this or that to try to poison herself. She sliced her wrists, but she's okay. The doctors stitched her up. She swallowed a box of tacks and is headed to surgery.

Imagine that. If you can.

I write of hope. I write of joy in the everyday. But I don't live this...

A friend of mine, though, lives this life. She is mom to a very broken, very sick daughter. I see this mom every weekend. She smiles. She walks confidently in God's love. She never complains about her troubles. In fact, I only know of her daughter's plight because we got to know each other.

Every time I see her - she marvels at this, as she just sees it as life - she touches me deeply. She reminds me that faith, hope and love are bigger than our experiences. Just by living, she reminds me that God is truly bigger than our sorrows and pains. She understands that this is the road God has chosen for her, and she doesn't complain or whine about it. She gets it.

A.W. Tozer says, "I do not recall another period when "faith" was as popular as it is today. If only we believe hard enough, we'll make it somehow. So goes the popular chant. What you believe is not important. Only believe...

What is overlooked in all this is that faith is good only when it engages truth; when it is made to rest upon falsehood it can and often does lead to eternal tragedy. For it is not enough that we believe; we must believe the right thing about the right One."

My friend prays for supernatural healing for her daughter. Oh what a day that would be! But, she understands, whether God answers that prayer or not, He is the One great, perfect and wonderful God. If He doesn't heal her daughter, He will give her strength to follow through. If He doesn't heal her daughter, He will provide opportunities for this mom to witness to others of His perfect comfort and peace. She has faith in God. She hopes big things. And she knows, deeply and truly, that God loves her.

I am truly blessed to walk this life with her. She makes it hard to forget!