What to Do On the Worst Day of Your Life (1/2)
Have you ever been in a place of raw, unexpected pain?
I have.
Have you ever experienced gut-wrenching, heart-breaking and soul-tearing agony?
I have.
Have you ever wondered how you could get up another day to breathe again … to perform ordinary tasks again … even to live again?
I have.
What does one do at these torturous moments?
What do you do on the very worst day of your life?
The very first thing that I did on the worst day of my life was to cry out to the Lord.
It was the only thing that I could do … that I knew to do. It was a reflexive and instinctive response.
When there is nothing else to say … say, “Jesus!”
I just repeated the matchless name of Jesus over and over and over again. I found myself lying on the floor with tears streaming down my face and uttering the most powerful word in all of recorded history, “Jesus!”
I said, “Jesus!”
I recall that the next thing that I chose to do was that I just held my Bible. I didn’t open it … I didn’t read it … I just held it and it held me.
Just the simple action of holding that beloved and sacred Book in my weary arms broke through the monstrous shock of the situation. Just touching my Bible ushered in an atmosphere of peace in spite of a horrific and unnecessary storm.
I held my Bible.
(Even now, as I remember the inexpressible anguish of that moment, my stomach is in knots and my heart is in my throat. But somehow I carried on and so can you.)
In spite of the sobbing and the heartache, I knew that the next thing that I should do was to call a friend. It was impossible for me to trust my own reactions and the raging emotions that were dragging me to panic so I called a dear friend, who was able to minister to me, pray for me and quote the word over my life.
Do you have a friend like that? Do you have a friend who will drop absolutely everything to stand by your side during a wicked storm?
If you don’t have a friend like that … then be a friend like that!
Cultivate sweet friendships that will have the tenacity and the resolve to love you, to tenderly care for you and to pray for you on the very worst day of your life.
I called a friend.
My sweet friend encouraged me to remember the last miracle that the Lord had done on my behalf. I began to recall time after time after time that God had come through in miraculous and undeserved ways in my life.
He gave me living babies after sending 5 babies to heaven! What the doctors said was impossible was possible with my God!
I remembered!
He healed me from an all-encompassing 7-year battle with depression. I encountered His presence where there is always fullness of joy!
I remembered!
He stood with my husband I through a season of betrayal in the ministry. He was faithful even when people were not!
I remembered!
He healed me from an aggressive form of cancer. My God is a healing God!
I remembered!
He brought a beloved son back to the Lord after years of searching. He tracked my son down and tackled him for God’s Kingdom and for God’s glory!
I remembered!
I reminded myself that He has done it before and that He will do it again!
I remembered!
The Holy Spirit then gently reminded me of the story in the Bible when the Lord had just fed a crowd of 5,000 men plus countless women and children with only 5 little loaves of bread and 2 tiny fish.
It was truly just crackers and sardines that the Lord used as the basis for one of the greatest recorded miracles in the Bibe.
The Bible says that the entire crowd ate and was satisfied! It was a sumptuous holiday feast of heaven’s culinary expertise!
Immediately after this incredible miracle, on that very same afternoon, Jesus sent His disciples into a storm of monstrous proportions.
The Bible describes the disciples as being filled with fear and in a state of panic and terror as the storm raged around them. Jesus, as you know, then came to them walking on the water.
Jesus came to these disheartened disciples on the very waves that threatened to destroy them. Think about that for a moment and then read on …
“Then He got into the boat with them, and the wind stopped; and they were utterly astonished, for they had not gained any insight from the incident of the loaves, but their heart was hardened.” – Mark 6:51 & 52
Every time I read this verse written by the Holy Spirit and Mark, my heart stops within my chest and I find myself on my knees in His presence.
There is a hidden detail in this verse that never ceases to perform a quick self-examination of my memory.
The disciples had not learned anything at all from observing the miracle of the loaves and the fishes! Their hearts were so hardened that they had developed spiritual amnesia concerning what the Lord was capable of doing on their behalf!
The next time that you find yourself in over your head, surrounded by seaweed and dangerous winds, remember the loaves and the fishes.
The compass that will lead you out of the storm is your ability to recount the miracles that God has done for you in the past even when you are in the midst of the most horrific moment of your life.
The miraculous God on the shore who provides in abundance is also the God of the storms!
I remembered … will you?
Will you remember the last miracle? Will you recall the faithfulness of God in your life even though today your boat is being tossed by life-threatening waves?
If you are living through the very worst day of your life … my simple wisdom to you today is to say, “Jesus!”
If the storm is raging around you … my tried and true advice to you today is to just hold your Bible.
If you are frightened by what the future may hold for you … my input into your life is to remember the last miracle and to praise Him for it.
(This blog, “What To Do On the Worst Day of Your Life” will be continued next week on October 11.)
Thanks for listening to my heart this week. As you know by now, my heart is truly not a perfect heart but it is a heart that is filled to overflowing with gratitude for the life I have been given and for the people who walk with me. And, it continues to be a heart that is relentlessly chasing after God and all that He is!