Sons of the Shepherd

  Right There Waiting For You       Grief likes to ambush you.  What does that phrase 'grief ambush' mean?  It means that you can be doing something in the normal routine of life, something so predictable and mundane, and then out of the blue grief just tackles you or attacks you like a mugger on the street.  Grief ambushes leave you feeling vulnerable, unsure, and fearful.  Grief ambushes can be ugly, but they can also be beautiful because they remind you of something beautiful, something you probably haven't thought of in quite some time. I had a grief ambush yesterday.  I was sitting in a doctor’s waiting room yesterday just watching Facebook reels.  There was a sweet black man sitting across from me singing hymns.  He had a Jesus loves me hat on.   And then a song came on.   “Right Here Waiting For You.”   It hit me before I even had time to prepare for it.       Now, much to the su...

  The Day that Hope Shifted       A few short days after the attack on Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt said that the attack would be a day that lived in infamy.  Days of infamy are days that are burned into our minds.  Days that we will never forget during our earthly journey.  Those days aren't just historical, but they are personal too.  Some days mark you forever, almost like a brand.  The very thought of those days can cause such a turbulent mix of emotions.  For me, one year ago, this was one of those days of infamy.  Not infamy not just because of what happened, but because God carried me through.       For days doctors and nurses had been discussing Tiff's condition.  Heart doctors, lung doctors, floor doctors, etc all flooded her rooms.  The consensus was the same.  They were all being honest, none of them were dispensing much hope.  They were simply waiting for a final confirmation from ...

  The Kindness of Others       It's easy to focus on the many hard things that happened during Tiff's last few days on planet earth.  Today marks exactly one week prior to her homecoming, and it was a difficult day medically.  Today she was bumped up to 8 liters of oxygen and the doctors all but told her that there was no way she was ever going to head home.  We held out hope that there was a small chance that Tiff would at least be able to receive hospice care at home, but today they told us that at best she would go into a long term health facility.  There wasn't a machine that could deliever the amount of oxygen that she needed to return home.  Needless to say it was quite a discouraging day.       But God always met our discouragement with heavenly encouragement.  A few days prior I was scheduled to speak at Grace Fellowship.  This church had become quite precious to us over the course of the year.  In many w...