Real Life

It has been one whirlwind of a year.

About this time last year, in October I think, we started praying for my sister's good friend who went in for an ultrasound on her baby to find out the gender, and instead found out he was not developing properly. Fast forward to February where she carried this sweet baby boy full term, and he lived for just a few short hours.

In March my dear friend lost her mother instantly in a car accident.

Two weeks later my sister lost her baby girl Brittyn 23 weeks into her pregnancy.

In July my friend lost her stepdad after over a year of struggling from a brain injury.

There were a few friends of friends mixed throughout the summer who lost more sweet babies, either after birth or far along in their pregnancies. Way too many sweet babies went straight to Jesus this year.

Today a dear, young friend of mine was diagnosed with cancer.

So maybe 2012 isn't the year the world ends, but for many of my close friends and their families, it has at times felt like the world was falling apart.


I just don't know what people do without Jesus. For awhile this year I was thinking "man this year has been crazy" but I've come to realize recently that this is just real life. Life never slows down. Life is never just easy and peaceful for awhile. Life is always crazy. This is why we need Jesus. Besides our huge need for forgiveness of sins, we just plain need Jesus to get through each day. Through the 80% hard stuff of life and the 20% good stuff to rejoice in. What do people do without Jesus??

Psalm 20:7
Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God.

28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.
31 What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?
35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?
37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
(Romans 8)