“Life is hard, and God is good.”
Denny
When I made the decision to leave my first marriage many years ago, I needed to talk to my pastor. Thankfully my pastor was Denny. While staying in a marriage that had become dangerous was not an option, my faith made an already difficult choice even more complicated. Walking into his office at the church, he pulled a chair up for me so that we were facing each other, took a deep breath, looked into my eyes and said, As your pastor I know what I’m supposed to say, but I haven’t walked in your shoes. What do you need and how can I help? What I needed was the grace of God, prayers for the road ahead, and, as an about-to-become-single-stay-at-home mom, I needed a job.
As we sat there he listened to me without judgement, handed me a Kleenex as the tears fell, prayed with me, and then, he gave me a job..
It had taken me a long time to come to my decision, and when I finally found the courage to leave, my biggest fear was that God would stay behind at church and close the door, leaving me to fend for myself. My greatest surprise was finding that God came with me, helped me pack my bags, carry them from my old life and load them into the new, and with the help of His good and faithful servant Denny, gave me a job cleaning classrooms inside the walls of the church in which I would always be welcome .
Death is never easy on those left behind. Yet somehow the earth trembles a bit more when some souls leave the planet. Today, the earth shook as Denny left the planet far sooner than any of us could have imagined. Denny, I am so grateful you were right. Life is hard, and God is good.
