More Than We Can Handle

We've heard the saying, we've parroted the words, we believe the words. God will not give us more than we can handle. Have you ever asked God why He thinks you can handle so much more than you think you can? (written 15 Jan 2008)

I know I certainly have thought that, I've even asked God "how much more?" No, I do not think of it as questioning God in the sense that I doubt His wisdom, although I truly believe that he invites our questions. He wants us to ask, to query, to dig deeper. Why? Because He has all the answers!

Today, our family is struggling. My heart is breaking for Aunt Carol (Uncle Dudley), Sue, Brian, James, Donna, Woody, and Teddy. I can't imagine what Uncle Dudley is going through. I see how mama was and is affected, and I'm relatively certain that Aunt Fay, Uncle Lee, Uncle Robert, Aunt Mary, Aunt Bobbi, and Sissy are reeling from their own reactions to the news that we all received yesterday. The cancer that we thought had been treated has been found in the lymphatic system, and at this point Uncle Dudley's prognosis is pretty dismal when it comes to time left on earth. I am certain that he has made his peace with God and is prepared on that front, but as humans are wont to do, I agonize and fret over the ones that have to deal with the aftermath. My aunt and cousins ... I know first hand the struggle, the pain, the heartbreak that they are going through. So many of us can feel their pain, can empathize. While we rationally can tell ourselves that the pain will be gone, that they are far better off, emotionally we are left to drift on a seemingly never-ending ocean of pain.

When we are at the point of asking ourselves "what else?" it is often difficult to remember that God knows what else, and He knows just what we are capable of handling. It is hard to trust when the emotional upheaval is so strong, but the peace that comes with knowing that we are not in this alone is a far stronger balm than we credit it to be. I leave you today with a request for prayers for Uncle Dudley, and for his wife and children.

God, I trust your ability to know just how much I can handle in my life, even though I don't always see it clearly at the time. You have never failed me, and for that I will be forever grateful. Your continued blessings give me reason to look forward to each new day.

"A good name is better than fine perfume, and the day of death better than the day of birth. It is better to go to a house of mourning than to go to a house of feasting, for death is the destiny of every man; the living should take this to heart."~Ecclesiastes 7:1-2 NIV