Rise to the Occasion
Twelve years ago, I knew a mission by God had been handed me and I had to “rise to the occasion”. The “occasion” was a very sick husband. Each of our journeys in life are just that – our individual scripted-by-God journeys. I think it has a great deal to do with our personal faith walk. My “walk” started way back as a youngster when my daddy was very sick. Your journey may have started just recently.
Despite the challenging times that the entire year of 2010 brought us, I knew God had given me a “go to” that included finding the blessing in every situation we were facing. I also knew God wanted me to write about it and live out “tough times don’t last but tough people do”. And, to help others see that in the worst of times, God shines His bright light and penetrates the darkest nights.
It was during those times that I began to write blogs about our experiences. In the worst of times, with God’s help, we prevailed and, in fact, found the silver lining in every one of those clouds. We realized that our perspective made the biggest difference. Rather than the perspective of “Why me? Why us?”, we found beauty in every new day.
This is the 12th year – since that year of all years for the Wuerch Family. I have been reliving many of our experiences, especially in the light of Mom’s passing a few days ago. She outlived her son by 36 years.
When October 13th rolled around while I was in Tulsa helping with the care of Mom, I remembered that was the day we rode home from the hospital in an ambulance while our children quickly dismantled our king-size bed and replaced it with a hospital bed. The decision was made to go on hospice -– an unexpected turn of events –- especially when our hopes were so high for a miracle at any moment. Hospice was a blessing for us in assisting with my sweetheart’s care – like it was for Mom.
And, through it all, along came my blogging. I was intent, each day, to find the “just right” photo or picture that would help me illustrate my point. I’d go through hundreds of photos before finding “the one”, like this one today. And like these photos, every time we took moments to remember Who was painting the picture of our lives, we literally rested in our faith — continuing to believe that at any moment, a miracle could happen.
When we let our limited perspective get in our way, we miss God in the middle of it all. When we dwell on the outcome, we miss what is happening now. God is right here with us each step of the way. He knows the way. Isaiah reminds us: “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor your ways My ways,’ declares the Lord. ‘For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts.’ {Isaiah 55:8-9}
“You can’t see the forest for the trees” is a quote that means if we’re so caught up in the middle of it all, we’ll forget that we are right in the place where God can fulfill His destiny and purpose in us the best. Time will pass and soon it will be like seeing with new eyes. Seeing things through His planned perspective.
I can see clearly now — the rain is gone. I can see all obstacles in my way. Gone are the dark clouds that had me blind, it’s gonna’ be a bright (bright), bright (bright) SON-Shiny day. What a difference the proper perspective can make. Keeping our eyes focused on the Storm Chaser, the Burden Bearer, the Safe Shelter — keeps our perspective on a bright sunshiny day — every day!