Letter to a friend

Charlie,
Jesus said , "the sick need a doctor not the well." As my uncle has passed away yesterday and I am faced with loss... not just mine, the loss of his children, grandchildren, aunts, uncles and nephews, and of course his two sisters, one who is my mother. We are effected greatly. In the past I mentioned about suffering. Many ask if God is a loving God why does He allow it... I say so we will do something with His Love. We need to look beyond the sadness and death and sickness. We need to look to God who has all things in His hands. We need to learn to trust Him everyday and in everyway... especially when we feel He is gone or not in control. This is when we grow the most. Jesus said, "blessed are those who see and believe, but even more blessed are those who have not seen yet still believe." When we do this we shame the fallen Angels. We show them that even though we never see God, we choose to love Him... We condemn them more because they saw His glorious Face and choose to despise Him.
We are a center of a great story... think of Job. It is not about us.. it is about the Great and living God we serve. It is about the great story of a fallen creature, who chooses to love God for Who He is.
We must persevere... because it is the gift of Life that drives us. We must gain strength in our weakness, for it is in God's Living in us we have strength.
The time you have now, Charlie, is the weariness of Christ on the Cross. The pain you have in your heart is the pain Jesus had in the Garden and on the Cross. But, by His stripes we are healed. He is the Great Physician. We are to be broken again and again to be found later in His image... a reflection of His glory. Death has lost, we see it over and over and think of it as winning, but it has lost. It is scared. Though it seems to have a minor victory, Death is scared that one day He will be judged.
Rejoice Charlie, even if it is not in your heart. Not that phony rejoicing but with wails of tears... which in heaven will be wiped away by our Saviors hands! rejoice not in the present now, but in the Eternal Now! Lift up praises not to the seen but to the unseen!
You have blessed, you will be blessed, as you are blessing to me everyday,
iggy