What is our
‘Best Case Scenario’?
I am totally
honored to get to share on Morgan’s blog today!
I thought it might be helpful for some people to know a little bit of my
story. So here are a few links to my
blog in case you want to know the whole story of our little lives. Click HERE and HERE to get a glimpse at our story.
My
name is Julie. I am married to the
absolute love of my life, Clay, and we have a two-and-a-half year old boy named
George. For the first 30 years of my
life, whether or not I would have admitted it at the time, I have lived a
pretty ‘blessed’ life. I, as a
Christian, tend to measure how great my life (or, really, anyone’s life) is by the ‘blessings’ in my life. Oh, I wonder how often we misuse this word
that the Lord puts such great emphasis on.
By
definition, ‘blessing’ means ‘God’s favor or protection.’ I think I’ve lived most of my life under that
assumption that a ‘blessing’ means something ‘good’ or ‘happy’. As we’ve walked through the last year of our
lives in our little family, the Lord has taught me that, sometimes, and maybe
even usually, God’s blessings come in the exact opposite form of something
‘good or happy’.
We
have two children; but our daughter, Nan, is with the Lord. She lived for thirty minutes after being
born, and Clay and I were able to hold her as she took her last breath. This moment has shown to be the greatest
blessing on our marriage. This moment,
as we watched our own flesh and bones leave all of the sin and anguish of this
broken world has breathed new life into our marriage. It has renewed our love for each other, for
our son, George, and most of all, it unearthed in us our most primitive love
for our own Creator. Never in my life
would I have described a situation such as this as a ‘blessing’. But we experienced so much of God’s favor,
His protection, and His redeeming love in that little hospital room, and we will
never be the same because of it.
I
share all of this background, because Morgan and I have shared countless
conversations over the past several months about the unexpected journeys the
Lord is taking each of us on. I’ve asked
almost every person I know to pray for the Cheek family, and I’ve had a few
people ask me the question that is written on all of our hearts, for all of our
individual lives.
What is their
[your, my, his, her, etc.] best-case scenario?
I
was sitting at lunch with my mom when she asked me this very question. And this response bubbled up from within me,
and I know the Lord has planted this seed of Truth in my heart.
Their [your, my,
his, her, etc.] best-case scenario is that Jesus would come back.
When
I was pregnant with Nan, the doctors were very sure that her life would be
hard, and therefore, gave us very little hope that we would ever be ‘normal’
again. I began to believe that anything
that is not ‘good’ or ‘happy’ could not be from the Lord. Then, Hugh reminded Clay and me of the single
most important thing we, as believers, can remember.
This is not our
home. This world is not as good as it gets.
To
an unbeliever, this world is as good as it gets. So anything that doesn’t make this life
better/more enjoyable/etc., really has no place in it, and we should get rid of
it, or hope for it to pass. But as a believer, this world is used to point
us to the Lord, who we will spend Eternity with, and the hard things- the
seasons of life that seem to split us in two- are used by the Lord to show us
Who He is.
I
have gone to Scripture so much throughout this season of my life, and have been
overwhelmed by the examples the Lord gives us in His Word of people He loves
deeply, that He showed His glory to through extraordinary circumstances. I think about Joseph being sold into slavery
by his brothers, Job losing absolutely everything, Jonah being swallowed by the
whale, and Paul imprisoned, just to name a few.
I think about the horrific circumstances of their lives, and how the
Lord used those circumstances to reveal more of Who He is with His people. It is probable that the world wouldn’t
describe these men as having ‘blessed lives’, but they knew that this world was
not their home. They knew that the best
was yet to come, and that it is coming.
I
look at my own life, and I can tell you that I would have been too scared to
choose the life the Lord has chosen for me.
And I don’t say this lightly, but I am thankful that He chose to give us
Nan. In those thirty minutes, the Lord
allowed us to experience the realness of the resurrection, and we will never
again be the same.
I
have no idea what you might be facing today.
Whatever your life looks like at this moment- I would challenge you to
pray that the Lord would remind your heart to long for your Heavenly home. I know that sounds like a heavy thing to
pray, but as believers, we should long for oneness with Christ. This world, as beautiful and comfortable as
it can be sometimes, is not our home.
But our eternal home is coming.
And this past year- as excruciatingly hard as it has been- has made my
heart excited to experience it.
No comments:
Post a Comment