Crossroads at Stormy Point - Six Crossroads for the Journey Ahead

So we're talking about the crossroads tonight at Stormy Point. Now you may have noticed around here we kind of like eagles. Right? An eagle's wing say eagles are so cool. You know, one of the things that makes them really unique and cool when when storms hit, when the winds start to grow, they actually Love that when all other birds, when a storm comes, man, they run the other direction. Like, oh no, the storm is here. They're freaking out running the other way But eagles actually look for the storms, look for the wind, because they have found that when they've studied these eagles, that they will actually take the storm, the wind. and get above that and use it to get higher in the air and higher than they everwise could have And when I was thinking tonight, I was thinking about tonight, about our life storms and I wonder what if we could kind of egalize and do that. The storms don't terrify us. So the same storm that looks so terrifying and destructive can lift us higher. Than ever we've ever gone before. And bring us to places because it's the Lord that's with us. So tonight, crossroads number three, ride the storm or sink from the storm. It might seem a little Strange to be talking about suffering at the chateau. Um, but even from some conversations I've had, um It's right beneath the surface. Some of us are going through some real difficulties right now. Maybe you've just come out of it. Maybe you know someone. You know what it is to be going through a storm. You know the number one reason they've done polls on this. What do you think is the number one reason people say that they don't believe in God? Or they stop believing in God. Do you know what it is? What's the number one reason? Anyone want to take a guess? They can't see him? You got another one? How Christians act. How Christians act? That's a big one, but that's not number one. Why good people get hurt? Yes, so it's along that the number one reason is how could a God that's good allow suffering? But what if the God, that God that in being good, allows suffering? Now you're not going to find that idea at a prosperity church. You're not going to find that idea at a big conference. I can see it right now. Persevere 2024. You're not going to find it. But maybe we should, because after all, how we respond to life's storms. Will define our lives perhaps more than anything else. I mean, why does a storm shipwreck one faith and fortify another? That question is at the heart of Well, I I kind of feel like it's the first time you read it, especially is one of the more out there sounding, at least, scriptures in the Bible Let's set the stage here. So the Apostle Paul is really frustrated with the church of Corinth. He's gone there, he sent people there, he's written letters. And still the problems persist. No matter what he tries, can't solve the problems. He's at the end of himself. In fact, the the language he used is I was in great great distress, anguish, many tears. He had to totally trust God's will and power. That's where the Lord brought him. That's where he wanted Paul to be And that's where he wants us to be. So that leads us to our anchor scripture here. This is 2 Corinthians 12. Here's Paul. In order to keep me from being conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it from me, but he said, My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Here it is, this the moment, guys, this is the moment where Paul's perspectives and actions completely change what he says next here. Completely switch his gears He goes from begging for the Lord to take it to bragging that he has the honor. Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why for Christ's sake I delight in weaknesses and insults, hardships, persecutions, difficulties For when I'm weak, then I'm strong. So some people say God sends um suffering. Some people say he allows it. I kind of like the word authorizes. Because either way, it's got to go through him if it's going to happen to you as his follower. So apparently Too many believers kind of have it backwards here. God's much more interested in our Christ-likeness than our comfort, knowing that he's the kind of God that Works all things to the good for those who love him. We get to this beautiful place. How else could we? In Romans 5, we glory in our sufferings because we know that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance, character, and character hope. That doesn't disappoint us. So apparently the storms in our lives are these four things somehow when the Lord is in it with us and has sent it. A trust, a test, and can be a triumph, and even a testimony. My greatest life lesson in this Um happened the day that my life completely changed. Anna's in my life completely changed Uh let me introduce you to one of the toughest, bravest, coolest, kindest young men. I know. I'm gonna embarrass him here, but Taylor's right back there. Taylor, would you stand up? Almost 19 now That's Taylor today. He is truly a walking miracle about 19 years ago. We went to a doctor Just for a normal checkup, and he said kind of some scary words. We're right at the end of it, and he said, you know what? I I don't think so, but I might have seen a little something Well what he saw when we went to a cardiologist for Taylor while he was still in the womb. was that he had a very rare and deadly heart condition, missing part of a chromosome. Anna and I had on the way there, un totally unaware anything like this happening. We had there was a new song that had come out from Matt Redman called Blessed Be Your Name. Blessed be the name of the Lord from is from Job. You give and take away. My heart will choose to say. Because sometimes it is just a defiant hope, even when you don't feel like it. Blessed be your name. We sang it all the way to the doctors, then we sang it all the way home. We had it on repeat. Except now it's more than a song. It's our life. Um I wrote this on Facebook a couple of years ago, and I thought I would read it to you rather than kind of going through the whole story. I've never seen a response to something. That I had written on Facebook like this. Nineteen years ago, several medical professionals advised us to terminate the little boy that Anna was carrying This was suggested to us as early as Anna's first ultrasound and by other medical professionals along the way. Imaging and other tests showed that his heart was failing and that his brain was hemorrhaging. And that he was missing part of a chromosome. We were told to go to term with him was to ask for a life of unending hardship for him and heartbreak for us. He would probably not even make it out of the birth canal. And if he did, we could expect severe physical handicaps in the life of him being fed through tubes. And because of how they'd have to deliver him, Anna was at risk as well. Well, of course, we made the decision to go to term and pray a lot. Taylor was delivered at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia in an emergency extraction about a month early. The first nurse that held him said, he must be a fighter, he bought me on the chin. when I picked him up. Well somehow the hemorrhaging on his brain had disappeared. And by the way, when I say we prayed a lot, I have From what we can tell, I think thousands of people were praying and maybe some of you guys were here. I know some of you were praying for 'em, but at one of the first president's retreats when Anna was pregnant with Taylor and we knew what was happening. Some of you guys gathered around her and committed Taylor to the Lord and I am convinced it's those prayers why the Lord moved. The hemorrhaging disappeared His immediate heart condition could be fixed by surgery. There'd probably need to be more interventions. There were more hospital stays and therapy sessions ahead, but God had given us Our son. On paper, Taylor shouldn't be alive. In reality, he's a thriving, funny, kind, intelligent, guitar-loving, family-loving, games-loving young man that loves God's word. Loves Jesus, his siblings, and his cousins, and he also makes friends faster than anybody I know. Um There have been challenges, surgeries, therapies, many tests and the like, but there have also been miracles, and we're talking actual Miracles. Things that only could be the work of an all-powerful, all-knowing God, events that even the most secular of medical professionals have described as, in one doctor's words, something or someone beyond me. And yes, in their words, miracles. We believed whether or not to keep Taylor was up to the one who created him. And he told us that, he told us that regardless of how long Taylor may or may not live, regardless of the challenges his birth might create, that he was God's masterpiece and wonderfully made. The fact that Taylor is as healthy as he is doesn't prove that we made the right decision. If he had only lived an hour or had been born with greater challenges, it still would have been the right decision God would still have been the same loving, holy, powerful God He is if He had chosen a more difficult path for us in Taylor I won't pretend to understand why our situation is easier than other families that sincerely love and trust God but go through much more difficult trials and grief. Only God knows the why on those questions, but he does care for and love us and our children so much more than he ever can We ever can. So I debated to share this. Again, this is on Facebook because I and I don't want to accuse or judge those who feel differently than me. We don't intend this to be a pro-life or pro-choice, put but rather a God can be trusted post. Anna and I are sharing this, so maybe even one might consider leaving what looks like an impossible choice up to God. Doing so will not guarantee avoiding hardship, but it will give an opportunity for God to be God. To show you his love and power in ways you wouldn't expect, and for him to lovingly teach you amazing things you wouldn't have known otherwise. This is the Lord's doing. It is marvelous in our sight, like King David said. So what we thought was good was the worst news we could ever hear ended up being a crash course in God's goodness. Let me tell you what I mean by that. Uh what I would have done if it was up to me, have a completely healthy son, no problems. But God had so much bigger things in mind. And if I don't tell you a little bit of this story, I don't think. will completely understand just how big God can be in these situations. We actually praise God for the difficulty. rather than that what we thought was best. Here's what we would have missed. First of all, I was a prideful guy when this happened. I had kind of some church burn, church burn victim, whatever that thing is. back in the day. And I completely depended on myself. I didn't think I needed anybody. I really didn't have respect for the body of Christ. I'm just being honest with you. I didn't hate the body, but I just I thought I could do it myself But God showed me in this process how big the body of Christ is. As God's people came around us in prayer here and even paid a lot of our bills. I would have missed understanding that God is still in the business of physical healing miracles. I'll tell you about that in a little bit. I would have missed opportunities we would have missed to take God at his word about the promises in his word and seeing him delivered time after time after time and he will do this for you. You trust him in your suffering. We would have missed opportunities to share with medical professionals, surgeons, how the things they were seeing and could not explain were because of a God they otherwise may have never considered. Otherwise. We had a a a surgeon who our our our very short story uh long story short um Taylor had a ventricle, he's about I think three years old at this point. And he had a ventricle that was too small, it wasn't pumping blood to his um uh to to his heart correctly. And there was nothing that they they had kind of done the things that they could do surgically But they said, well, we're gonna try one thing. We hate to do this. They were I mean they were being honest with us. They're like, we don't like what we're gonna have to do because we're gonna have to put a balloon in his ventricle to stretch it out. But we're telling you right now, so you know the risks, that sometimes that ventricle will burst in this process, even using the smallest balloon. But if he's not getting blood to his body. He's done for. So we uh opted to do that surgery. We got there That morning. And Taylor's Taylor's uh Pulse Ox, the the oxygen in his blood Up to that point kept going down. I don't know if you know what a dangerous level is. A hundred's the best, but it had gone, this is one of the ways they knew to look at the ventricle from 90 to 80 to 70, very low. And so by the time we get in there, it was 70 something. That was three weeks before we got there. That morning got a little preview because they took his pull socks. And it was a hundred percent somehow. The the nurse actually Called in another nurse. She's like, I'm not very good at this sometimes. We need to get a second opinion here. So she called her in and she said, it is, it's 100%. We don't know how to explain that. But um let's prep them for surgery. So we went in and uh the I'll never forget this. This is one of those moments. Uh They kept us up to date that things were going okay in the in the surgery. So they come out and the surgeon plops on the couch there to tell us how everything went. Leans back and he even cursed a little bit. He's like, ah I don't know how to explain this, but he said, um, I went in there. And it looked like someone had already been in there before I got there. Guess what we said? Let us tell you who. Comforting other parents, sharing Taylor's story about God's goodness with thousands of young Native people at WLS, God is always up to so much more. Then we can see. Um let's talk about here, as I think this helps. I thought about this a lot when we were especially going through Taylor, but um the Taylor situation But as we worked with a lot of Native American young people, we start to ask these questions. We get it all the time. Why does God do this? Why does he send storms? And I think there's a few Well, there's a lot of reasons, but there's a few big ones I thought might be helpful for us to talk about tonight. The first one is to keep us fully dependent on him. Paul learned something about the hard times with the church in Corinth. They strip you of your self-reliance, don't they? C. S. Lewis said, the human spirit will not even begin to try to surrender self-will as long as all seems to be well with it. In that season of forced dependency and humility, something unexpected happens. Our Jesus picks us up Ministers to us, and we feel the powerful hands of him in ways that we may not otherwise have. That's what grace sufficient means. That's what this this is what's what's uh interesting to me. So God didn't change the situation by removing the affliction But he added an ingredient, grace. Grace is God's provision for our every need when we need it, even when we don't deserve it. In fact, the great theologian, Clint Eastwood. In unforgiven, described grace. He said, deserves got nothing to do with it. That was my cleaning stuff impression. You're welcome. By the way, he so he gives us all the grace we need, but only enough for today. Psalm 6819 says, Praise be to the Lord, to God our Savior, who daily, that word bears our burdens. Deuteronomy 33, your strength will equal your days. I remember my dad telling us early on. With Taylor, he said, don't try to live days that aren't here yet. God gives you enough for this one. If you've got 20 pounds of grief, I remember he said if you've got 20 pounds of grief, he'll give you 20 pounds of grace. 100 pounds of grief, 100 pounds of grace. For that day, no more, no less. So we get that the word tribulation. This is interesting from the Greek word tribulum. So tribulum drawn over the grain would separate the wheat from the chab. So our spiritual tribulum In Latin, our spiritual tribulum, our trials and our storms purify us and they sanctify us. Because God loves us enough to wean or even strip us of anything we would depend on more than Him. There's something else interesting here. God didn't give Paul explanations. He gave him promises You can't build your life on explanations. We cry for them. We ask for them. Lord, please. But you can build your life on promises, especially when they're gods. Lord, tell me why my child is wandering. Tell me when it ends. He says, if you don't give up doing good, you'll reap a harvest due time. He'll always respond with a promise. And how we navigate life's pain is dependent on how much we believe God's promises. Psalm 119, David says this, my comfort and my suffering is this, your promise preserves my life. Amen. So what do we do then when the storms hit us? First, we embrace God's purpose. So during our Taylor Tribulum, um There was a pediatrician who I met just at a at something dad was speaking at, and he said, oh, I heard a little bit about what was going on. Taylor wasn't born yet. And he reminded me of something at the perfect time, the scripture, where the disciples are asking Why in the world, Lord, this this man was born blind and they're trying to figure out the theology of healing and sickness and everything. Why was he Born blind, it was it because his parents messed up, they sinned, or was it because of him? Was he sinning? You remember what Jesus' reply is? This happened so that the power of God could be displayed in his life. And ours too. The storms aren't random, he sent them for a reason. In fact, no matter what comes now Anna and I will look at each other. We'll reflect back to something that has happened where God has been faithful over the last 19 years with Taylor. And we'll say he did it then, he'll do it now. Embraces. You can you can focus on the pain of the storm. It's it's up to us or the purpose of the storm, but the sooner you embrace his purpose The sooner you experience this peace. You might not know it at the start, but he does have a purpose for whatever it is. It's not random You can be sure he has the reason for it, and it's ultimate ultimately to make you more like Jesus. Isaiah 64, 8. Says, Lord, you're our Father, we are the clay, you are the potter, we are all the work of your hand. Now, does anyone here know about Pottery. I I go to Silver Dollar City and I see like these amazing artisans doing all the pottery work and everything. And I'm like, man, that's so amazing. But I mean I am not an artist. My kids are. I struggled with Plato as a kid. Um, so I'm not gonna be that guy, but I actually uh from that scripture I decided to read up a little bit. about what makes a great piece of pottery. So let me show you both of these here. This w here's this one. Now this is uh these were actually both made by my sister's daughter, who is a wonderful artist when she was younger. Um Jenna. Now, there's this one and and it's okay. I don't want to hurt Jenna's feelings or anything. But I mean it's kinda it kinda little breaking a little bit it's kind of rough feeling it looks a little bland and and I mean it's okay but you know so there's there's option one now Jenna also made this one Now that's legit. Which one would you rather have? Which one would you buy, do you think? You think this guy? Here's the difference between this one And this one. I read up on it. And apparently there's a process called firing the clay. You guys know about this? Um so rather than try to explain it, let me let me read what Google said. Um so you know you can trust it, it's the internet, right? No question. So the fired one makes it more durable. It's the fired pottery that's the good stuff. So get this. Firing clay transforms it from its soft beginnings Into a new durable substance. Ceramic, tough and strong and similar to stone Pieces of pottery have survived for thousands of years, all because clay met fire. The temperature needed to transform soft clay. Get this, you can't do it in one of your ovens. It's extremely high using temperatures of more than 1500 degrees Fahrenheit to fire clay. You know what's interesting? You know what they call the finished product after it's been fired? This is actually a pottery term. They call it mature. What our heavenly potter does find us to a place of deeper spiritual maturity. It's never random what we're going through. And by the way, he knows how much heat you can take. He also knows how much heat it will take. Forget us mature. So when the storms hit, we embrace his purpose. We also remember his history. Remember who it is we're talking about here. All the times he's been faithful in our lives. In Isaiah 49 it says, those who hope in me will not be disappointed. Can anyone attest to that? How many times have we lived that? Again, I can't tell you how many times in the last 20 years that something is has hit and we've thought back and said if he can do that, he can do this. So yesterday yesterday's agony, this becomes today's altar. Yesterday's mountain becomes today's monument. In God's goodness, yesterday's wilderness becomes today's worship. And yesterday's trial becomes today's testimony. Embrace his purpose. Remember his history. And remember this. He understands. Now we go, well, of course he understands he's God, but sometimes I think we get the The wrong image, the wrong mental picture of the Lord, just how much He cares deeply about the details, deeply about the sorrow that we feel. He's been through what we're going through. We not only serve a God who's there, but we serve a God who's been there. Psalm 56, 8. Listen to this. Is this amazing? For each for all the billions that have ever lived, you keep track of all my sorrows, Lord. You've collected all my tears in your bottle You've recorded each one in your book. Hebrews 4. If we don't have a high priest who is unable to Empathize with our weaknesses. Let's then approach the God's throne of grace with confidence. Why are we approaching it with confidence? It just told us right before Because he can empathize with it. We can go confidently knowing we're praying to a God that has experienced what we do, physical suffering, betrayal, temptation, grief. The rest of that scripture, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. You know the Greek word for help? It's used in the Bible several times. The Greek word actually means literally to describe holding a ship together in a storm. Interesting? So literally, grace to hold us together when we feel like we'll fall apart. Embrace his purpose, remember his history, remember he understands and trust his plan. I know who holds tomorrow and I know who holds my hand. Psalm 139, all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. So when you can't see his hand, trust his heart. The same God, just whatever you're going through right now, whatever you're going through, the same God that said You are my masterpiece, the same God that said, I formed you in your mother's womb, the same God who of John 3:16, the same God who gathers all of our teal our tears. Who goes ahead? The Bible says he goes ahead of us in the battle. He goes beside us. He's our rear guard. He's ahead of us. He's beside us. He's behind us. The same God that stopped for the bleeding woman and for Zacchaeus, for the hurting, the blind, and the lame, it's the same God that says, I've got this. Man, does that bring me a lot of comfort? There's always something bigger going on when it comes to God. Um can you imagine this? We know how hard it is to navigate life's storms. When we have the Lord in our life, what about the people who are trying to navigate it? We all have friends like this and family members without him. Oh my goodness. Can you imagine? I mean, maybe you maybe you didn't become a uh believer until later in your life, and you remember what that feels like. 2 Corinthians 5, it says we're Christ's ambassadors. We're familiar with this verse. He's making his appeal through us, his appeal of how he much loves us, his appeal of the gospel. Here's the thing, your ambassadorship can become superpowered through your storms. Maybe that's what Jesus had in mind when he had this conversation with Peter. Here's another, my goodness. Might throw you for a loop. So Jesus is talking to Simon. He says, Simon, Satan is asked to sift all of you as wheat. Oh, that's good news. But I have prayed for you. Now, I would think that the next line there would be, but I have prayed for you. You've already been through so much. I've prayed that you wouldn't have to go through that. But that's not it. I have prayed for you what? So that your faith will not fail. And when you turn back, that that faith is going to inspire, strengthen your brothers, your perseverance inspires theirs. Don't breeze past this as you're reading it. Um The God who created the universe, Jesus Christ Himself, is praying for you. All the time. He doesn't just sit there and go, well, that's good. I'm rooting for you. I'll be on this cloud over here. Do well. He's in the fight with us. Goes ahead of us, beside us, our rear guard. Those times you felt like the walls were were closing in. And then something amazing happened. You feel his strength. That was Jesus Christ praying for you, interceding for you. He says, as I do that for you, I'm gonna do that for the people around you. Here's the thing, guys. People need our Jesus, what Spurgeon calls the cross. Spurgeon calls it the magnificent magnet It's open hearts for people, of people for the past 2,000 years. And your cross Well, that can open hearts that have been closed to your Jesus. If God has sent you a cross to bear, Dad put it this way: if God has sent you a cross to bear, if he has allowed you a cross to bear, he trusts you. So you can see how the world see you can show the world how really amazing his amazing grace is. The walls go down, hearts open up when you speak from the unarguable platform. Of your pain. That has anyone told you you have a way with words. The people in your life that are going through their storms without Jesus are watching you. When you go through your storm. And how you respond to it, how you react to it, how you treat your family, how you treat your coworkers. Is proclaiming the gospel to them. And there'll come a time where you need to open your mouth and share why it is. They'll probably ask you. How you're handling it? How are you putting up with all of this? How do you still have joy? And then you've got that opportunity. Trust his plan. When you can't see his hand, trust his heart. Couple more here. Spend a lot of time with him. And then spend some more. We should be doing this anyway, but especially in a time where we're really suffering. And I'm not uh yes, we know read our Bible and and that's all good, but But when I talk with my boys, when we learn scripture together, we always talk about it in the context of building our relationship with our Heavenly Father. Um that you're you're it's not a book you're making time for, it is your savior So spend a lot of time with him, especially when you're going through it in his word. Ron mentioned the other day about the thousand invisible mornings. Where no one really knows if you're having time with the Lord, but you do, and he does. So tell me how you spent your last a thousand mornings, and I'll tell you how successfully you'll trust his promises in your opinion. There's just no substitute to for experiencing God's character, his hope, his goodness, then spending that time in the Word with Him Uh and here's the great thing, you've probably noticed this yourself, because the greater the storm, the more his promises jump off the page. So spend a lot of time with him and then spend some more in his word and on your knees. I I love these scriptures that are uh that are kinda what I call no-duh scriptures. You're like, well, why does it even have to be in there? Isn't that obvious? But they're in there for a reason. So uh James 5. 13 is one of them. And if you're suffering hardships, what should you do? Pray. And in fact, when you're if you're going through this right now, I've started to do this with some of my friends. Don't just ask Hey, will you pray for me? Because everyone is always like, yeah, I'll pray for you. Stop them and ask them if they will covenant with you in prayer. Now this goes past sure I'll whisper something about you when I'm thanking God for my Big Mac tonight. This is a covenant I we are committing to one another before God. That I'm going to pray for you in your hardship and you're going to pray for me in my hardship. Find a friend you trust and find more than one and ask them to covenant pray with you. Throw your burdens on him. He knows what you're going through. Throw your burdens on him with confidence. I'm so grateful for the times that when it has just seemed too much. Sometimes literally I'm I'm just on the ground on my face before him and you feel that beautiful feeling of anxiety turning into anticipation God's gonna do something great. Spend a lot of time with him. And finally light the darkness. Romans 15, 13, may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope. By the power of the Holy Spirit. In our sad and broken world, there is no greater witness than joyful presence. When I was in um at children's hospital, uh we were still in in uh the unit where where you were in a it was still kind of an emergency and I got in an elevator and I saw a guy who could not have looked more devastated. And um He sounded like he was maybe from uh from Europe and I said, how are you doing? And he said, I'm doing awful. So why? And he says, because this beeper has become my life My daughter was born without a heart. And she has to stay here until attached to all these tubes, until someone can give them theirs. A transplant. And he said, they've told me it could be a day from now, it could be a year from now. He says, I've been here for nine months. I live in this hospital. He said, how can you be smiling? Seeing you about, how can you be smiling? And I said, let me tell you about why. And can I pray with you? And he listened, and we had a great conversation. I don't know if that man trusted the Lord with his pain, but their people are always noticing. Joyful presence when you're going through it. There's nothing more powerful, no greater witness. The joy of the Lord is our strength, it says in Nehemiah. Let's just wrap up with this. An awesome outcome for trusting children. Let me show you one more picture here of Taylor That is my son, the not viable one, leading worship for the first time at Warrior Leadership Summit as he plays the guitar. I was trying not to lose it the whole time during that first song. I didn't do a good job. I'm glad I wasn't singing that one. Guys, in this twinkling of an eye, time where we experience suffering, trust the author of your story. He's eminently trustable. He knows how it ends. We don't know exactly, but we do know his promises ultimately in Revelation. He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain, all these things. are gone forever. Believing that promise will change your perspective, and believing the one who made it will change your life. No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind imagined the things that God has prepared for those that love him. At the end of that conversation, Jesus tells James, one day you will be healed, and you'll be leaping for joy We all will. Let me wrap up with this quote. John Greenleaf Whittier, if you don't know the name, you should. He was an American poet and advocate of the abolition of slavery in the United States, and he said this. Yet in the maddening mess of things, and tossed by storm and flood, to one fixed trust my spirit clings. I know that God is good. Heavenly Father, help us to take whatever it is that you have communicated. to us here and um and put it into practice in our life. Lord, pray especially for those that are In the middle of a hardship right now, they just don't know why and and um they're struggling to trust you. I pray that you would help them. Give them the strength to know that you're working to the good, even for their good, even in that awful circumstance, for the one who who has a child or children that are away from you. We pray for them as well. So Lord, we commit our way to you and we trust that you will comfort us and that you will work in all our circumstances, even through the really hard ones. We love you. Jesus name amen.