Walking Together

As difficult as life can be,it can be lived with a feeling of purpose when you can share it with someone. I have a new friend, Diane Minor, that I have spent the last two Wednesdays with sharing our journey of grief and faith. She lost her beloved son and has the same difficult time understanding the purposes of God in the extremely painful path that God has asked her to walk. We spent these hours sharing the ways that we have searched out where our loved ones are and what they are doing. We both have read every book about heaven and surviving this loss of deep love. The questions remain, how and why are we to walk and live in this life, at this time and for whom? It seems we have asked God the same questions and have found ourselves recommiting our daily lives to find more reasons to love and serve Jesus while honoring the love that we still have for our loved ones. We both have a deeper compassion and commitment to see others find this Jesus that we and our "Williams" have for him. Oh , yes, both of us gave a "William" to Heaven. I am sure they were praying for the support that we have found in each other. I read something by Francis Frangipan today. First he said," The place of our fruitfulness is in the land of our affliction." Then his prayer, " Lord, You are God of the mountains and the valleys ...help me remember the crises of my life precede the enrichment of my life." God, may Diane, me and all of our fellow travelers on this journey of suffering find ourselves tasting this new fruit that brings Glory to you and strengthens us as well.