Waking to tragic news is never fun. It happens to me more often than I’d like. I remember hearing a pounding at my door early one morning many years back. I made my way downstairs to see my grandmother on my father’s side at the door. “Your daddy’s had a heartattack.” Wow… The Iron Man is not as strong as I thought. No one ever believes that their father will ever fall. We see it happen to others all the time, but that’s THEIR dad… not mine. My dad is strong.
But he was not too strong this time. He was actually driving when the attack hit him, and he was able to keep his wits about him to make it off the road and call for help on his cell. A surgery later, he was on the road to recuperation.
When I learned that my sister’s boy had a brain tumor… I was floored. “He’s only 13! Are you serious right now?” This is something that only happens to grown people. Surely there was a misdiagnosis. But, the diagnosis was right, and the symptoms all couldn’t be ignored, either. A surgery later, he was on the road to recuperation.
When my sister called and asked me to please get to the hospital because she’d just dropped off my mom, I rushed there immediately because it was said that mom had suffered a stroke. “Wait, what?” She’s only in her early sixties. People don’t have strokes until they’re like… 80. Right? Well, after she was admitted to the nursing home, she was on the road to recuperation. Right? Wrong…
“Long before you ever said
Let there be light
To long after this world has had
Its final night
Great god in heaven you’ll be
Where Youve always been
Seated on your holy throne
King of all kings
Looking down on men”
Mom suffered another stroke, but not before dad lost his battle to cancer recovery and pneumonia. Tyler didn’t make it to mom’s funeral just a year later because he was too sick from another tumor that had grown back. “Gammaw” didn’t make it to ANY of the funerals. She met mom and dad in Heaven. She left before they did. In that time period, I also lost an Aunt and an Uncle. I had never lost so many people at once in my life. I was not accustomed to this. Plus, I was dealing with bad relationships with others in my life at the same time.
“Morning and night the sky shouts
Your majesty
Saying the whole universe
Is under your feet
This is the peace in my heart
The strength of my soul
Whatever happens in life
This much I know
You are in control”
Tyler is still fighting the good fight. He’s so much braver than I ever could be. He’s going to graduate soon, despite the fact that his chemo treatments force him to take classes not from a school desk and classmates, but his kitchen table with a private tutor. He’s lost vision in one eye, and peripheral vision in the other, but is determined to still beat the odds and drive his own car, even though the state doesn’t want to issue him a license.
Me, I have learned that when I wake up in the morning, I can still give Praise to the man who has been faithful to me through every breath I breathe. I’ve learned that regardless of what card I am dealt, I can play the hand with confidence, because my Lord Reigns!
“You are ruler above all the nations
Sovereign through all generations
Lord you reign
One day
All kings will tremble before you
I will bow down to adore you
Lord you reign.”
Unless the Lord takes me Home to be with Him first, I will face more tragedy. I’ll rush to another emergency room, or another deathbed, or another funeral… and in all the confusion I might ask “Why…” But in the end, it won’t matter. God’s plan is perfect, especially when we don’t understand it. That’s when we turn to Him, and lean on Him, rather than our own understanding. He Reigns.
Lord, today… it’s my prayer that You will give us all peace in our hearts for the things we don’t understand. It’s my prayer that You will quicken us to turn to you in times of tragedy, and loss, and understand that nothing happens without going through Your hands first. And Lord, it’s my prayer that you will remind us all today, that no matter what happened yesterday, later today, and tomorrow… You still reign.
“You Reign” by “4HIM” contributed to the composition of this story.
The Alarida Journey 