Inspiring Stories

 This weekend, we watched "Soul on Fire." It's the story of a 9-year-old boy who played with gasoline and matches and was burned over most of his body. It's an inspiring story of resilience. In one scene, his mom was praying in the chapel. Boy, did that bring back memories. I recall the many trips I made down to the chapel during the four-plus months we were at the Shreveport hospital. 

I tried to sing and play the piano that was there. I prayed. I sat quietly. I took communion. It was such a difficult time. As I watched their story unfold, it brought back lots of memories for me. A time or two, I had to pause the movie and gather myself. 

Today, though I was thinking about their story, my story, and all of your stories. Don't we all have inspiring stories? Most likely, each of us doesn't think our stories are all that inspiring, especially since we are stuck in the middle of living them.  But we all inspire each other.

We inspire one another to keep the faith. To keep walking. To keep trusting. To keep bringing it back to God over and over again - as often and as much as we need to.

We encourage each other to cling to the Word. Keep reading it and believing it - even in the face of tragedy and deep grief. 

What I love most about all our stories and other inspiring stories is the one constant. It could be that people are determined to figure out a way to work through their difficulties. But that is a close second to God being in the mix. He is the constant in the unreliable environment of caregiving. In fact, He can turn any place into a meeting place, from an ER to a hospital chapel, ICU, or just a long, feverish night at home!

Oh yeah, for sure we are inspired by the stories of people who never give up. Of people who keep trusting God in the big, ugly face of adversity. But we are those people! 

Today, I'm going to give myself a break. I will remind myself that we have been through hell and back several times and will probably make a few treks back around before it's done, but faith is still intact. God is still on the throne. He didn't leave on the darkest nights, and won't leave at morning light! He's in it with us for the long haul. Isn't that what makes our stories the most inspiring? Trusting Him when we cannot see. Can't feel. Don't want to feel. I'll think about how He remains no matter how ugly I act, He still stays in my story. And because of that, I believe I can trust Him for one more day. Will you join me?

Check out my latest release. Command Your Morning is a 31-day devotional that is focused on taking charge of your soul and day in the morning and trusting God that the rest of the day will follow suit! You can get the eBook from my shop at Buy Me A Coffee. Or the print and Kindle versions are now available in my Amazon Shop.