Blessed Be the Name of the Lord

Last week my son called me and said "Mom our worship team sang this song (Blessed be the Name of the Lord) and prayed for you" . He then called me and said that a number of worship teams in the South are praying for you and in God's way, always His way, wouldn't you know my passion for music and I am being prayed for by young men and woman who are using their gifts of music to bless others.

I went down to the piano and looked through the worship songs my kids have kept from years of being on worship teams. Wouldn't you know it, they were alphabetized so I did not have to look past the B's to find the worship song Blessed Be the Name. I pulled it out and tucked it into my Bible.

Saturday I was at a women's gathering. It was very special in that the woman who spoke has been a mentor for our pastor's wife and our pastor's wife does not keep the wisdom of this 73 year old woman to herself. Well can you guess what one of the passages of scripture she taught from? Yep, Job. And when Job faced the worst possible catastrophes in his life what did he do? He fell on his knees before God and said what? "Blessed be the Name of the Lord".

Job did not alter his faith in the almighty God, even in the face of extreme trials. Nope he could fall before his King, your King, and my King and offer up praise to Him.

Today I sit in wonder of the examples of misfortune in the people I know and the Godly men and women in the Bible. I am comforted by these stories of those who kept their focus on Christ. It did not mean there would be no emotion, no pain, no loss. It did not mean that life was going to be honky-doree. It meant that there is someone who knows me and will give me the comfort that I am going to crave in these next months as they unfold.

The results of my MRI are "dreadful". This is a word used by a friend and I love that word. It just gives meaning to a tumor. Dreadful. This friend has given me the understanding of allowing myself to grieve this news regardless of what the next steps will be. There is a mass behind my optical nerve. It explains why my vision has been deteriorating and explains many other things. We have a mighty God and with that also comes a sense of humor. We cry, we laugh, we cry, we laugh. I told Emily she now has a title for her book she might write someday. "Deaf Brother, Blind Mother'. Please laugh, it's okay. I also took 15 minutes to shower, dry my hair and put on lipstick with my eyes closed and you know what...I did fine. I may not lose my sight, but that can happen so in my own way I tested the waters for 15 minutes.

Please pray for our entire family in way that can only bring Glory to God. I am scared and my mind would like to take me to a white cane with a blue tip or is it a red tip, but I know that I am to take one day at time and live each day breathing the same air that our Lord Jesus breaths. At this moment I am also reminded of the worship song...Give thanks with a grateful heart Give thanks to the Holy one, give thanks for ........and now let the weeks say I am strong, let the poor say I am rich, let the blind say I can see...I am not sure that is the exact words, but it jumped into my mind and out my fingers the words clip along.

If you have a trial in your life put your faith, your focus, and your heart into the hands of our Lord Jesus. And Blessed Be the Name of the Lord.