We are always walking in the shadow of god

​I had a chance to present at a Help Hope and Healing conference yesterday in southwest Virginia. One of the main speakers was Jamie Tworkowski.

Jamie is an author and speaker and advocate for mental health wellness. I was immediately drawn to him. His vulnerability and willingness to share his deepest struggles managed to connect with my deepest struggles.

Jamie said, "a story is a sense making device".

It never ceases to amaze me how hearing someone else's story helps you make sense of you own.

Then Jamie told us he was born in Morehead City, NC.

Some of you may know that's where the hardest and yet most beautiful day of my life took place. It's where my son Elliott was born.

Without a heartbeat.

When your first kid is born without a heartbeat, the day is long. It's not the day you read about in the "your first baby" books. In that moment there is no story that makes sense of the story you are suddenly living out.

Today, as I look at Elliott, the high school Junior, the kid with the slyest smile I know, a smile that often brings the kind of reassurance I was desperately seeking that day nearly 17 years ago in Morehead City, the story makes more sense than ever.

I believe with all my heart that God has prepared a place for us beyond this life. That's the story that most often makes sense of the story I live. I believe it so strongly because this side of heaven I so often find myself in moments that feel like they have been prepared for me.

Yesterday was one of them.

I am reminded today that we are always walking in God's shadow. He will always already have been wherever we will go.

To remind us of that, in his wake he will leave women and men like Jamie Tworkowski. He will leave them there to tell stories that will help us make sense of ours.

He will leave them there to remind us, that no matter how challenging the story gets, the story has a happy ending.

It's already been prepared.