Based on my blog dashboard, more than a few of you just found out what I covered yesterday and it obviously left a lot of questions. For 6 weeks, I have done some major soul searching. Anytime you strip away the things that are closest to your being, you have to eventually look at what is deepest. I’ve been to those depths many, many times recently.
It was during one of those internal soul searching expeditions a few weeks ago that quite possibly the greatest song ever written came across the speakers. I don’t remember who was covering it, but they sang “It Is Well” as well as anyone else. As usual, I paused, if just for a moment to allow the words to soak in. Somewhere in that song a phrase jumped out to me. It’s become my anchor. I drew a line in my internal self that day to hold firm to this one statement. It has been this simple phrase that has been my go-to in the uncertainty of the last few weeks and those ahead. It’s so simple, yet so powerful…
Even so, it is well with my soul.
I’ve said before that I have a “wait problem.” I don’t like to wait and I despise surprises. I’m a guy that likes to know and calculate the outcomes long before they happen. To make it worse, I am often a “worst case scenario” planner. As my mom used to always say, “the thing you fear most never happens.” But what if it does? What if my fears were just as it ends up playing out?
Even so….
Last week a close friend informed me that he is going through a very difficult season in his marriage. The mine fields are everywhere. His strength in the midst of the storm is honorable. My heart breaks for him. Yet as he delivered words I didn’t know were coming, he also shared his hope for what is ahead. His outlook, no matter what, was positive.
Even so….
I share this with you today because maybe you’re in that season too. Maybe you are in another season that just doesn’t seem to be what you would have asked for. Maybe it’s unemployment. Maybe it’s health related. Maybe it’s a relationship. Maybe it’s just the current hand that you are dealt. I want to encourage you today to embrace this simple phrase…
Even so….
This morning I opened my laptop to press “publish” on this post. I just read a facebook status that a high school friend has been placed in a hospice center. Your prayers for him and his family would be much appreciated. What a sobering reminder that two words don’t change our circumstances. These two words can’t make what we want from what we feel should not be. It still hurts. It does, however, give me pause to remind myself that no matter what, the sun still rises and sets. No matter what, the one that commands the stars is still on His throne. No matter what, the same God of the Bible is the same God of you and I.
Even so….
http://youtu.be/l2xYMa6zA3c
