Stunned...

When I thought about this post late yesterday it was going to be positive. I had a couple of great chats on Skype with two really good friends from Mercy Ships last year. I saw a friend from England yesterday morning who I only see once a year. I spoke to my mentor on Friday night and did lunch with another friend on Saturday. It was a great weekend of catching up with old friends. But when I was thinking about that I hadn't yet received the first bad news of the weekend.

A couple of events happened that rocked my world this weekend. They didn't happen to me, but they involve people I care about. The first incident happened on Saturday night to a friend who's in my cell group. A fire destroyed his room and all his possessions. He escaped with third degree burns to his hands, but unfortunately both his dogs died in the blaze. And then last night one of my really close friends was pulling into her driveway after church (I'd seen her 15 minutes beforehand) and a couple of guys robbed her at gunpoint. They made her lie on the pavement (sidewalk) while they stole everything she had on her. This makes me so angry! But praise God that physically she's fine, although obviously shaken. So it has been quite a rough weekend.

It just made me see things again from a different perspective. How often I worry about me and how bad I perceive things to be in my life (the past week had not been the best week for me), and then these events happen which leave me shell-shocked and thinking, "Wow. I am speechless. I am stunned." I'm not saying that my struggles and issues at this time are any less valid, but it certainly showed me that there are things that are happening that are so much bigger than my own struggles. And of course God is bigger than any of our struggles and is in control of every situation. Please keep both of my friends in your prayers at this difficult time. Many thanks.