Of Sorrow and Mercy
Monday, March 17, 2025
Are so long
Across the face of all creation.
Micah 7:18
Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over the transgression of the remnant of your possession? He does not retain his anger for ever, because he delights in showing clemency.
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Luke 1:54
He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy,
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Words of Grace for Today –
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When God hides from us, there is nothing more than despair left.
Joy has taken wing, along with hope,
and the wear and tear of life eats away at our hearts, minds, and strength until nothing is left, except
a prayer of desperation.
Phillip John Hanseroth wrote it in The Story for us all.
All of these lines across my face
Tell you the story of who I am
So many stories of where I’ve been
And how I got to where I am
But these stories don’t mean anything
When you’ve got no one to tell them to
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HP0BZ9P4gdA
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Then a year ago, @Malindams, told her story commenting under one of Brandi Carlile’s renditions of The Story: (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8pQLtHTPaI)
“All of these lines across my face, tell you the story of who I am, so many stories of where I’ve been and how I got to where I am”.
These words saved me during many rounds of chemo and radiation. I was diagnosed with breast cancer when I had a kindergartener and a 4th grader. My boys were so young, I told my oncology team, bring it on, I can take it…I just have [to] live long enough to get them through high school.
The chemo took it’s toll and aged me so much faster than my friends, it was hard to deal with. Now I know the lines across my face tell the story of where I’ve been. 15 years out and one boy has graduated from college and one who is a junior…both are thriving and I celebrate life every day.
Thank you, Brandi for putting into words, what I could not.
So it is with many of us, and for me:
The grief engulfed us and took us down, as God hid from us,
or so it seemed.
What then, but to take the advice
what can you do when you find yourself in hell, day after day?
Just keep going.
And on the other side of the dark dark blue blues, there are the days of brilliant sunshine, and blessings that were there all along,
just hidden in the grief,
holding life out in all it’s wonder for us to be grateful for.
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so we thank everyone who had words to help us keep going through the hell.
It’s still there, it never goes away,
but the promises are truer now than before,
for there is no better way to know there is light,
than to see it from the darkest moments of the darkest wildernesses.
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Thanks to all those who had the honest words
of God’s love for us all along…
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You see the smile that’s on my mouth
It’s hiding the words that don’t come out
And all of my friends who think that I’m blessed
They don’t know my head is a mess
No, they don’t know who I really am
And they don’t know what I’ve been through like you do
And I was made for you.
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Special thanks to the few who were always there …
And God, full of mercy and steadfast love, who sent them …
For whom we were made.