To the cross I cling

I'm going to jump right in being blunt, that this past week was a hard one.  There was a very sudden, unexpected death that happened in my family.  It really shook me and had me thinking a lot about suffering and salvation.

About a year and a half ago, our pastor had a seizure and was then diagnosed with stage 3 malignant brain cancer that had a low survival rate.  He made this video right after he found out about all this.   He has such a great, Godly perspective on suffering that has really encouraged me. 

It can be so easy to put your identity in the things around you: your family, your money, your job.  But when suffering happens, all of that can fall apart.  If your hope is in anything apart from God, it can all be taken away with this world.   I can't imagine what it would be like to go through the valleys of life and not have God to carry me through it.  It breaks my heart.

Being Easter weekend, I'm especially thankful that Jesus is alive.  Death and pain still happen, but He is bigger than that.  Jesus died for me, knowing my sinful heart at its worst.  I'm forever grateful for his mercies, and that He has counted me worthy to glorify God in the good AND in the bad.