Tuesday, March 29
Headlines
I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. —Philippians 4:13
Headlines from the Baton Rouge Advocate, Monday-Thursday before Christmas, 2021
Death toll in Pakistan sewer gas blast up to 17
Typhoon death toll tops 140, Greater devastation likely in Philippines
Islamic world pitches aid for desperately poor Afghans
Baton Rouge father of 4 gunned down
Woman seeks help in face of loss, 3 siblings killed, mom injured in ‘absolute tragedy’
Man killed in motorcycle crash
Two injured in Sunday afternoon shooting
U.N.: Over 160 migrants drown in wrecks off Libya
Woman crashes through post office
ICE center called ‘unfit to house human beings’
Phillips 66 refinery closure looms
Not a ‘fairy-tale’ story
BR dad gunned down days before Christmas is 145th killing this year
La. Firefighter killed after truck tire explodes
More than 50 still missing in wake of powerful Typhoon Rai
Gunmen kill 47 in latest Nigeria attacks
Church agency: Captive missionaries escaped
Man dies in Bogalusa police custody
9 days after tornado, cat found in building rubble
7 in Minn. die from carbon monoxide
‘The police just grabbed me and started punching me”
LSU Law professor regrets defending student
In the National Alliance on Mental Illness support groups I attend and facilitate, one of our principles of support states: “We won’t judge anyone’s pain as less than our own.” I can only imagine what the people who have walked the rough roads in the headlines must feel, and I am quite certain that some of them have had their faith severely challenged. To me their pain is much worse than anything I have ever suffered.
What a challenge to be captured by enemies. How devastating to drown while attempting to reach freedom. How terrible to lose a father through gunfire or an entire family due to an automobile accident. On and on the challenges go.
Yes, there have been times when I did not get an expected job or was told that my services were not needed any longer. In the course of his career my husband did not work for four years. That is why he did not retire at 65. We never went hungry. I believed in “give us this day our daily bread,” and it was daily fulfilled.
Yes, my son fought in a war and came home not the same as when he left, but he came home. His faith was challenged in ways that I can never know because he does not share all of the bad times. His faith is very much intact.
His house has flooded several times, but he and his roommates were not hurt and most of their belongings were salvaged. The first things they grabbed were their Bibles.
Life has not always given me roses, but it is not God who left me or my family. It is usually I who am not praying without ceasing or I who am not reading the Word. There have been rough roads to walk, but I have known that God is always faithful. God is good, always. Always, God is good no matter what the rough road holds or what challenges are to be faced.
When that rough road comes to meet me, all I have to do is read the headlines, or talk to another NAMI caregiver or to another VA caregiver. My road is not nearly as rough as theirs and through Christ, I can do ALL things. I can overcome all adversities and hope that others can see HIS LIGHT shining through me in the challenge.
Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and power and glory forever. Amen.
Daphne G. Grady