Bad News

     It's so unassuming.

     Even though we seem to spend most of our life worrying. Worrying about those things that never seem to find the light of day.

     And then before we know it. The one scenario. The one scenario we never had the time to worry about and play over and over in our minds like a broken record, is the one that surprises us.

     It's the one thing that actually sneaks up on us.

     It comes at a time when you never truly suspect.

     Oh, how life crafts such stories, I'll never quite know.

     It's also the moment when you're not looking so intently when love seems to be found. And when such life defining twists occur.

     But one is never quite ready. Not as much as we'd like to think we'd be.

     There's a vulnerability in the air now. Our humanity on display. Reminding us, that though we may wish it to be so, we do not control and run as much as we think we do.

     And I am still a bit stunned by it all, by such bad news.

     The events leading up to it, were just so damn unassuming.

     And now she has cancer. 

     She delivered the news to me with such gravitas, with such grace, with such ease and peace. I almost misunderstood the words.







     And what do you do with bad news?









     We face it.

     It's tempting to look away. To cover it up. To run away.

     But no -- we will look at it.

     WE. WILL. LOOK. AT. IT.

     Together.

     Never alone.

     Because our position in the world has not changed.

     We are still vulnerable, small and tiny creatures, being held by an incredible infinite force beyond our finite comprehension.

     And we lean in.

     We lean into this force of Love.

     Bad news has a way of causing us to change, to discard the unnecessary, and to appreciate the everyday miracles of the good.

     Because in the midst of bad news....there--far, far off in the horizon, is a new world.

     One to be explored, not just merely conquered.

     A world that is meant to show us more about ourselves and the God that walks with us in the valleys as well as the mountain tops.

     Meanwhile we are shedding tears. And we are praying.

     And I'm learning more about what love looks like in the midst of such terrible and bad news.

Wisdom's Knocking:

"Even though I walk through the darkest valley,
I will fear no evil, for you are with me..."

-Psalm 23:4a