Grace that overjoys
A dear family friend, Dan, passed away two weeks ago from cancer. He was diagnosed two weeks after Ryan at the end of 2013. Dan and Ryan went through chemotherapy treatments at the same time and we never felt alone in our journey with these dear friends by our side. This was a struggle we all wanted to walk with real faith, abundant hope, and integrity. This was a journey we rarely needed words for to know what we should be praying for one another. To be partners in this great suffering was a privilege. While Dan was still in a stable enough physical state to attend church, he approached me alone in the pew every Sunday and pointedly asked me, "Are you finding joy?" Every time he asked me this I was caught off guard. There were times I wanted to melt into a puddle and times I wanted to blurt out, "Of course not! Not today, not even this week." As I looked at the grand scheme of our life, everything that was broken, all the dreams that were lost, and all the p