Playing a Weighty Hand

This weekend, I had the great privilege of meeting three new friends.  Side note: it doesn’t matter how hard I try, I will never spell privelige privelidge privilege right the first time.  Argh.  Anyway, I met three lovely ladies – one through my blog and two in person – and each of them are walking with their husbands through very difficult diagnoses.  Each meeting felt divinely appointed and each was like water to my soul as I gained knowledge, encouragement and hope from these fellow sojourners through the valley of the shadow.

When the husband of a family receives a devastating diagnosis, it’s like all the cards in the deck get reshuffled and redistributed.  For me it wasn’t overnight, but for many women it is.  Suddenly, they are holding all that they were holding before, plus a sizable portion of their husband’s hand, plus some brand new, very heavy cards called Research this Illness, Talk to Doctors, Argue with Insurance Companies, Get to know Pharmacists and Respiratory Therapists and, oh yeah, there are those other little cards to hold called Walk yourself and your Children through Grief, Take Great Care of the Man Who used to Take Care of You.  These are weighty, bulky things to hold – sometimes it feels impossible – but the wives I talked to know instinctively that dropping them is not an option.  We were made for this.

The past two weeks have been tough ones, but I feel sunlight breaking through these low-hanging clouds.   I’m learning new tricks for dealing with discouragement and I remind myself of this truth often:  I was made for this.  God prepared me for this good work (Ephesians 2:10).  He created me to walk this road and walk it well and there is grace for this.

Whatever you’re facing today: there is grace.  His love can shape shift to wrap itself around any pain, any turmoil, any failure and any misfortune.  He is is good and does good and He knows the cards in your hand.  Oh, I love this life with Him, I really do.

If you know a woman who is supporting her husband through a chronic or terminal illness, would you send her my way?  I’d love to develop a small community of women who can stand together when the standing gets tough.

So much love to you, dear blog friends, on this sunny Monday,

Bo