Joy comes in the Mourning: 3

As the curtain falls on 2016, I have reposted three blogs that capture the journey my family began in February 2015 when we were told our grandson Braden was in the clutches of a dragon named Rhabdomyosarcoma. These three mark waypoints through the first 16 months of our suffering...his suffering. I reposted the first, "For Braden from my Heart" on December 29, 2016 followed yesterday by Blog #2 "From Another Perspective."

Blog #3 "Even If the Healing Doesn't Come" was written on June 28, then posted on June 30, 2016 and reflects on Braden's legacy.  Know this: the anchor holds!  We grieve not as those who have no hope. Our confidence stands firmly rooted on "the blessed hope" we have in this: Jesus has overcome, the grave is overwhelmed!  We will rise--Braden has "leveled up to the real world" as he described his approaching death.

Hoping these blogs help others who suffer; hoping they honor God, who remains a Strong Tower of confidence and assurance as we lean hard into Him, working through our loss, pain and grief; hoping they point the way to "the real world" for you, that place in eternity where our Braden jams before the King; waiting, anticipating, the New Heaven and New Earth.  Trust Jesus today.

"June 28, 2016

'I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.' Philippians 3.14 ESV

Today, life changed. Our 14 year old grandson, Braden, died. He lost a 16 month battle with the Dragon we call Cancer. I don't want to go to bed tonight because it feels like if I can just stay awake, I'll somehow be able to reverse reality; that he'll be there waiting to have breakfast with me on Saturday morning and 'hang-out.'

I want to reflect on death, life, life-after-death and Braden. It's what he would want to talk with you about, if he still could.

DEATH levels the playing field of life. No one ever gets out alive. Feels capricious and mean-spirited. Yet, not. You see had not death been allowed to efficiently rampage through humankind, with no exceptions, we would be once and forever separated from experiencing the face-to-face relationship God created us for in the first place. It's through this portal that we bound into eternity; it's the portal Braden bounded through today. Without death we would be chained to a relationship of enmity with God; no reverse, no repair--no hope.

God not only provided us with a portal, He provided us with a redeemer. I love the way the Apostle Paul describes how we access this pass-through portal to eternal LIFE in his letter to the Church in Rome:

'9 If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by openly declaring your faith that you are saved. 11 As the Scriptures tell us, 'Anyone who trusts in him will never be disgraced.' 12 Jew and Gentile are the same in this respect. They have the same Lord, who gives generously to all who call on him. 13 For 'Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.' Romans 10.9-13. NLT

This two-step process here described in Romans 10 provides us with certitude about LIFE-after-DEATH. It gives us freedom--from guilt, fear, dread AND the righteous judgement of God. Now we have access to God's grace--undeserved favor--and He treats us not on the basis of what we deserve, but with transformative love. Our part? Openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, (and) you will be saved. Jesus, our redeemer. He gave us back our freedom to say 'yes' to God--His amazing grace, His unconditional love, His sovereign transformative vision for our lives.

My beloved Grandson BRADEN, tapped into God's amazing grace as a very young lad. That didn't make his faith any less real, transformative and powerful. He always had a tender heart for God. It's hard not to wonder what might have become of this boy who was on the threshold of becoming a man. Broken hearts. But this disease that ended his life with us, gave him something too, it is a remarkable gift.

Instead of getting bitter, feeling like a victim and feeling God had abandoned him--Braden used the deprivations, the humiliations caused by the Dragon to go deep and radically trust God. He turned suffering into an opportunity to think about 'what's important' and 'what comes next' and about God. He began to think God's thoughts, after Him. He said this, responding to a question about 'How could a good God allow you to suffer, to die?'

'God didn't give me cancer; a broken world did. God gave me His presence to get me through the each day. He gave me His Word to show me how to live the real life, so that death isn't the end; see it's not just that God is good, it's that all good is God, there is NO good without God.' 

Even if the healing doesn't come.

As Braden drew his last deep breath and passed into the presence of Jesus, he was surrounded by people who loved him. Early today, drifting in and out of sleep he roused himself and declared, 'Tell my family, tell my friends, I love them.' So, know this, YOU were loved.

Braden's legacy is really all about a much bigger love--He wanted you to know that YOU ARE loved by God with an amazing, gracious, transformative and redemptive love. He wanted more than anything else for each person he touched to have a face-to-face relationship with the God who fearfully and wonderfully made each one of us.

So Braden has 'run' with dignity, grit and abandon--driven by his passion for God and love for people. His legacy continues to be written in my life and YOUR lives; this is what he would say: 'So what will YOU do with Jesus?'

Father in heaven, thank you for selecting us to be Braden's family over these past 14 years. He was Yours before he was ours and now, we release any claim--and lay him lovingly into Your arms. May his passion burn brightly in our hearts and through our lives. Use his faith-filled life to inspire us to faithfulness to a 'long obedience in the same direction.' We ask that Your peace will carry us through the days ahead, Your grace will restore us, Your mercy knit our broken hearts. Through Messiah Jesus, let it be."

Live it well...bN tGit