A series of unfortunate events.

I am not a Halloween fanatic by any means but there are things about it that I look forward to.  But for the whole country and people back home this Halloween is different, very different.  

The beauty of Halloween is it brings about the opportunity to see how you can creatively search your closets ( and quite frankly your friends closets) in search of the perfect pieces.  It is the chance to get to dress up as someone, or something else.  For a few hours, you have the opportunity to (unrealistically) alter your reality.   

The past few mornings I have been able to see the TODAY show and the devastation hitting the East Coast.  In all honesty, Josh and I had no idea about the Super Storm- another side effect of not having television or internet in our apartment.  I watch it in disbelief and wonder how people even figure out where to start.  

Another storm hit back home in MN when we found out that a young Life Time trainer passed away suddenly and unexpectedly.    While I did not know him as well as Josh, my heart still aches at the loss.  I know he was a man who had come from a life of destruction to a life of hope.  He loved the Lord, which is a powerful statement in and of itself to be said about anyone.  He and his wife were a few weeks away from celebrating one year of marriage.  I know that anyone can grieve for her in that, but being a wife I not only grieve but am angry for her.  I am angry that she had to be the one to find her husband gone.  I am angry that she had to go to bed alone last night.  I am angry that she had to wake up alone this morning having to remind herself that all that happened yesterday was real.  I am angry that the life they pledged to live together is gone.  Yes, I would like to search some closets, find a costume and alter my reality, alter her reality, alter the easts coasts reality.

But it won't happen.  The storms have hit, have done their damage and now we face the aftermath.  But amongst it all there is hope.  I feel like I should bold, underline, italicize and make that word 100 point font so it is not missed...HOPE.  I have been so empowered lately by the fact that I serve a God who is for me.  Literally, God is the only one for us.  We are selfish, fragile, prideful humans who without Christ's indwelling will always pick ourselves.  But God decided to step in and give us a new reality.  One where we can grieve, mourn and wail all the while knowing that He will always be for us.  

We live in a world that isn't just a series but a lifetime of unfortunate events.  But those events cannot take away our identity or purpose, only our roles.  Your house may be destroyed taking away your role as homemaker.  Your job may go under taking away your role as employed worker.  Your child may pass taking away your role as mother or father.  Your spouse may suddenly be gone taking away your role as husband or wife.  Yet those of us who are in Christ have hope.  We have the continued hope to live FROM our identity in every situation, which fulfills our purpose.  The roles we lead do not give our life purpose- we were born with our purpose- to worship and bring glory to God.  That purpose can be lived out in any circumstance or situation that life brings.  Therefore, everything can be taken away but our purpose and our identity can never be stripped from us.  The image God has created us in and God himself cannot be taken away, hence, we have hope.