Please welcome to R&R my beautiful sister-in-law Meghan, who sent me this reflection after the bittersweet celebration and lament of the first Father's Day with my daddy up in Heaven. Wonderful sister-friend that she is, she asked me what my dad's favorite dessert was and proceeded to make peach cobbler in honor of him. Only the cobbler got a little crispy. So there in the kitchen we sat, crying over bites of burnt cobbler because it felt so symbolic: something else sweet that had been taken by flame, something else ruined by life circumstance.
This woman is such a well of wisdom, a cistern of fresh, spiritual water. I believe that in her words of encouragement to me on that dark day, you too may find comfort and peace.
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I burnt the cobbler...and all I ever wanted was for that day, Father's Day, to be "perfect", at least as perfect as it could be in what we know as reality now.
But obviously it wasn't. It was a day of sorrow, tears, anger, frustration, grief, heavy emotional weight lifting and crushing.
It was a day I never want to happen again, and yet next year it will come again.
As life passes us by now, literally passes us by, we wave. We wave because that is all we can muster up enough strength to do. We don't engage, can't engage. We merely exist in this black hole vortex, this world that has turned into a true Alice in Wonderland.
A world where we think we see something in the present because we have seen and felt it in the past. A world where we watch our close loved ones and view them as the past- when all was grand and seemed like peaches and cream.
We merely sit hyperventilating because we don't know how we can take another breath of this current life. We stay up late, afraid to face the next day. We wake the next day exhausted because that is just what life has become- exhaustion. Even the waters of the lake, which once calmed us, remind us of the wars within- a source of drowning our emotions.
We feel all alone. Alone in the anguish, sorrow and indescribable gripping pain.
However, although each of us have a unique weight of baggage and back story, in the end we are ALL attempting to jump the same hurdle. We are all running in the same rat race called life. We are each attempting to figure out how to be the other's champion through prayer and encouragement, without getting wrapped up in the vortex of the unbridled tongue.
Don't miss this- our common denominator is the Great and Almighty Heavenly Father.
How great thou art. How great thou art. How great is our Shepard who leads the astray back to His flock.
“Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. Be sober-minded; be watchful. Our adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. To him be the dominion forever. Amen.”
To that we say, amen. Amen.
Amazing grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now I am found, was blind but now I see.
May we feel the charge, the challenge and the guidance from our Shepard, Jesus Christ, each and every extremely imperfect day. May our hearts once again have the giddy joy of a child like we experienced on the massive rope swing in mom and dad's backyard at the end of this Father's Day, despite the "burnt" peach cobbler. May that glimpse of joy remind us that it is not all lost, and imperfections are humbling. Continue to cast all your fear and sorrow on the Lord. Nothing is too big or weird for Him.