breathe

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztBPBsbkvFQ&w=560&h=315]Sometimes life knocks the very breath out of you. Literally. A gasp for air from a clenched throat. Stomach tightening, jumping up to choke. Wind itself gagging.Come soon, Lord Jesus, come soon.There are times it’s your own life, and then times it’s the life of those you love dearly. Pain can’t be compared. Yet the unique pain of watching someone you love experience loss, is the ache for them. The longing to be able to take it away, trade places, somehow bring relief...and facing our own powerlessness.We’re already walking, fighting, climbing with one family through the aftermath of the death of a mother at the end of a prolonged battled with cancer. Now another?Breathe. Mothers not yet done mothering. Wives not yet done loving. But isn’t that the very nature of a heart bent on sacrificing for her family? Till the very end, ceaseless love.But these mothers, they leave an aching hole. I don’t have the courage be a part of the Body. To weep with those who weep (Romans 12:15). To hold another set of sisters hands, this one with a brother too.Yet when another soul who I’m intimately connected with is suffering, I suffer too (1 Corinthians 12:26). The ache of loss channels through the love and unity we share.

“To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken.”  ~ CS Lewis, The Four Loves

Breaking because another is broken. Not shying away from desperation. Together clinging to a Fountain greater.Someday, some glorious day, we won’t need hope anymore. Only love will remain (1 Corinthians 13:12-13). Until then, oh I need hope! So I can hold their arms up when they’re so often weary, on this journey of walking in victory of grieving with hope (1 Thessalonians 4:13).I need faith! Faith to cling to God’s promises, even when I don’t see the fulfillment in this lifetime (Hebrews 11:13). Even when healing doesn’t come here, now, tangibly.

The LORD is near to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit. Psalm 34:18

Make Your nearness known, sweet Jesus. Over those who’ve lost. Over those who love those who’ve lost.Download music soothing for your soul FREE here from Audrey Assad off her album Fortunate Fall.