I spent most of my adult life visiting with my younger sister through the thick glass of prison visitation cubicles due to her repeated drug-related incarcerations.

Then… in 2013, I walked into my 19 year old son’s bedroom and found his lifeless body. Having lost his battle with debilitating depression, he had taken his own life.

Over the years, I commonly heard stories from friends such as: “I prayed for my alcoholic parent and today they are sober! We now have a wonderful relationship.”

I prayed for years for my dad, sister and son.

They died anyway.

We could all live out our lives focusing on our pain. We all are given that choice.

But please don’t.

Because of the Cross and the Empty Tomb, my dad, my sister and my son – free from pain, addiction and disease – are more alive than they’ve ever been. Experiencing joy and peace beyond our comprehension – in the very presence of the risen Christ. A reunion is coming.

After suffering crushing pain, Job wrote,

“I am terrified at [God’s] presence… I am in dread of him… Yet, I am not silenced because of the darkness, nor because thick darkness covers my face.” (23:15-17)

Job was brutally honest. The pain of life on planet earth was killing him. “What’s next?”, he thought. But he resolves (saying, in essence, what David would write centuries later):

“Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death – I don’t have to be afraid: because you are with me.”

Has life dealt you a painful hand?

Trust Christ – who absorbed our pain on the cross – even when you can’t understand.

I have made the choice to do this.

Would you join me?

Love to you all, Nick