127 – Charmaine – My husband’s dad committed suicide two weeks to the day of his wife’s death. How do we deal with this?
“Please brother I need to talk with someone. I don’t know if you got my last email about my husband’s mum passing away, but now we face a terrible challenge...
His dad committed suicide 2 weeks to the day of his wife’s death...How do we deal with this???
Not only that the stress, but now their estate and finances are on us...
Please Michael, I know our Father speaks with you and I know he is speaking to me, but I’m so clouded I can’t hear but I desperately want to...
Your sister in Christ Charmaine
Email reply after message:
Hello brother Michael and sister Lisa,
Yes, brother you are right, why run to man when our Father is closest. Thank you for the slap in the face I certainly needed it. I have felt like a cloud has been preventing me to see the sunshine but if I just stretch out my arm through the cloud God will hold onto me.
I printed out the attachments and I will spend some time reading with a cup of tea.
Thank you for helping me see what is right in front of me OUR WONDERFUL AWESOME FATHER.
May God bless you and keep you
Sister Charmaine.”
From Panic to Peace: Trusting God in Times of Trouble
Charmaine had followed the ministry and example of faith for many years, but she suddenly found herself panicking at the tragic news they received. I find the Christian experience, both in the Bible, and in life to be like a set of train tracks. As Christians, we travel on two rails: one of suffering, the other of comfort. We may experience events "full of pain and affliction and difficulty and losses and crosses". But alongside this rail runs another, parallel track: God's blessings and comfort.
Isaiah 40:28-31 reminds us, "Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint."
Even when troubles weigh us down, God offers comfort, not to coddle us, but to equip us to comfort others (2 Corinthians 1:3-4). "For the more we suffer for Christ, the more God will shower us with his comfort through Christ" (2 Corinthians 1:5). Our trials become opportunities to experience God's grace and to share that grace with those around us.
When facing overwhelming challenges, we may feel panicked, like our world has turned upside down. Jesus acknowledged that we "will have troubles in this life" (John 16:33), but He also offered hope: "But take heart! I have overcome the world." David's cry in Psalm 55:4, "Surely God is my help; the Lord is the one who sustains me," echoes the sentiment of trusting in God's sustaining power even in the darkest valleys.
So, when you find yourself on that difficult rail of suffering like Charmaine was, remember the parallel track of God's comfort which will arrive in due time. Cry out to Him, as David did. Seek His face always (Psalm 105:4). He will not fail you. He will give you strength, provide for your needs, and bring you through the fire. And on the other side, you, like Charmaine, will have a testimony of His faithfulness to share, a testament to the two rails of a life lived in Christ.
