{"id":769,"date":"2008-02-23T14:22:00","date_gmt":"2008-02-23T19:22:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.michellebeachy.com\/blog\/saturday-february-23-2008\/"},"modified":"2008-02-23T14:22:00","modified_gmt":"2008-02-23T19:22:00","slug":"saturday-february-23-2008","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.michellebeachy.com\/blog\/saturday-february-23-2008\/","title":{"rendered":"Saturday February 23, 2008"},"content":{"rendered":"

I feel grief.  Recently I made a new friend on xanga named, Gloria.  She caught my attention first about the time she realized she was carrying twins and was diagnosed with Twin Twin Transfusion Syndrome.  Our baby’s due dates are one day apart.  If you’ve been reading my site for more then a year you probably remember my sister Beth’s babies being diagnosed with the same thing.<\/font><\/p>\n

Gloria’s case was even more serious and she was sent for surgery.  The bigger baby died a few days later and now she had another ultrasound and they are giving the small baby no chance to live.  Visit her <\/font>here<\/font><\/a>.  I keep crying.  To lose two babies would not be easy.  To lose them after such a fight for their life and putting your own at risk would be worse.  To lose one baby and continue to carry it while hoping and hoping the other baby would pull through and then to hear this news would be devastating.<\/font><\/p>\n

Last Sunday our Sunday School lesson was in Romans 8.  And, of course, we discussed the familiar 8:28 verse. <\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/font>And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.  <\/font><\/p>\n

I listened to the ladies discuss this verse and how it is true for every area in our lives.  Inside, I shivered a little remembering the depth of my emotional pain in our infertility not even a year ago.  Even though I knew in my head that this verse is true, it’s hard to believe in the middle of something so painful.  “Why would a God who celebrates children withold them?”  Why would that not be His will?  I knew that God is good.  That He is love.  But why then was there so much pain in the world?  In my world?  I came to realize in a limited way that my definition of good and God’s definition of good are not always synonomous.  I see “good” as things we perceive to be good…things that bring me pleasure instead of pain.  Like love.  a relationship as opposed to rejection.  stable, trustworthy parents.  friendships that give meaning to our life instead of hurt.  and yes, children.<\/font><\/p>\n

As I listened more to women talking about how they accept this truth in their life, I had a pretty strong hunch it wasn’t always as easy in the moment as they were making it sound in Sunday School.  I refuse to believe I’m that abnormal.  My question, the one I couldn’t verbalize because I was crying too hard already, is this, “How do we share this truth with people who are in the moment of pain?”  Because it is life-giving truth.  But it is a stab wound into an already devastated heart when it is thrown at someone in the flippant way we throw words around when we are so desperate to offer bandaids.  I didn’t realize I would come face to face with that question before the week was out.<\/font><\/p>\n

I found some healing when we backed up into verses 26 and 27.  <\/font><\/p>\n

Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.  And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.<\/font><\/p>\n

God understands when our cry is too deep for words.  When we reach out to Him from the depths of painful silence, from the storm of sobs that leaves us unable to verbalize, His Spirit translates for us.  <\/font><\/p>\n

I think God wants us to make intercession for fellow believers in the same way.  Perhaps our too frequent dilemna of, “but I don’t know what to say” is a gift from God that we try to shy away from because we do not want to feel that depth of pain.  Instead we should go there.  Feel the pain.  And then like the Spirit go to God with groanings which cannot be uttered.  Flippancy is never comforting whether you’ve experienced something similar or not.  Care is.  And when we care in the manner the Spirit does, we will not use Romans 8:28 in the wrong way.<\/font><\/p>\n

And Gloria, if you read this post, know that I am praying that you would be surrounded with comforters.<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I feel grief.  Recently I made a new friend on xanga named, Gloria.  She caught my attention first about the time she realized she was carrying twins and was diagnosed… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-769","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p39ynQ-cp","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.michellebeachy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/769","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.michellebeachy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.michellebeachy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.michellebeachy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.michellebeachy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=769"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.michellebeachy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/769\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.michellebeachy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.michellebeachy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.michellebeachy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}