Thursday, November 13, 2014

Road Closed! Detour!

Today we’ll begin to look at the first "sign post" of widowhood as I continue to share bits of my presentation, "Road Signs Along the Way." (By the way, if you'd ever like to have me speak at your own widows group or retreat, please email me at WCplace@gmail.com ). In the next few days you'll see how my grief transformed to hope, and some Bible truths that renew me every day. Using our obstacle course illustration, it’s like I’ll be calling back to you about what’s up ahead, what to watch out for and where to step. ferree
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The day my life changed forever started out normal enough for me. My Bible reading that morning was from a devotional book called Daily Light. It only takes about 5 minutes which was great because two of my kids---Lisa, a junior in high school, and Brad, in eight grade---had to leave for school by 7 o’clock.  The Daily Light pulls together verses with a common theme, and that day the theme was "God is my portion”
Numbers 18:20 I am your portion and your inheritance
Ps. 73:26 God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever
Ps. 16:5 You, O Lord, are the portion of my inheritance…
Lam.3:24  “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I have hope in Him!” 
Oddly enough, I thought those verses seemed very nice for the little old widow ladies in my church. And I had this exact thought:  I should take these verses and start a file to share with them. I can add more verses to the file as the years go by. Then, too, when I’m one of those cute little widows--- in about 40 years--- I’ll have a file full of comforting Scriptures!
But I pulled out those verses that very night when Bruce died instantly of a brain aneurysm right before supper. The road I was on with my husband was suddenly closed. There was no turning back, no do-overs, and no moving forward like we’d planned. My life was in a new season, and an unwanted detour. And I was in shock.

The next day was my 44th birthday. I was a bride at 22 years old, a widow at 44. And since longevity runs in my family I was pretty sure I had another 44 years---another lifetime---to go.
What would the next half hold? How could I go on? Was God really my portion? What did that mean?
I had no idea. The only thing certain that day was this: this was no birthday party.

5 comments:

  1. On what was the worst day of your life the Lord gave you those wonderful verses. We do serve an awesome and faithful God.

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    1. Yes we serve a wonderful God. He is faithful and a present helper in time of trouble. Father of the fatherless and protector of widows is God in His Holy habitation (Psalms 68:5).

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  2. Hello Ferre,
    Its so good to have you back blogging. I was blessed by your post today and yesterdays post brought tears to my eyes. I have been feeling sad in the last few days. But i am reminded that God is walking with me on this journey and all will be fine.

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  3. Dear Sharon, That was pretty amazing, wasn't it? I can't make that stuff up. It was just too ironic. Funny thing was I had no idea what those verses really meant until just the past several weeks!

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  4. Hugs to you Halima. You've come to mind often and I'm sorry to hear you're feeling sad. Sometimes, though, that's the right thing to feel in this fallen world. I can say that to you because I know you'll keep your eyes on Jesus through it all. And the I know the Lord will complete His good work in you, Philippians 1:6 and II Corinthians 4:17. <3

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