I just returned from a conference this last weekend. It wasn’t a Christian conference, it was a blogging conference. What I didn’t know, until after I attended the conference, was that it was a heavily Mormon conference. My first clue should have been the fact that it was held in Salt Lake City. But it wasn’t advertised as such. My second clue should have been the group that was sponsoring the conference were Mormon. I came to find out that all the workshops I went to were run by Mormons as well. My third clue came in the keynote speaker at the very beginning of the conference.
The keynote speaker had a very sad story to tell. He started blogging to document the journey with his son who was diagnosed with a horrible genetic disorder that would lead to an early death. This father talked about the illness some and documented the whole journey with thousands of pictures. Pictures of his son at the hospital, pictures of his son with doctors, pictures of this son with the family. As the speaker spoke about his son, my mind kept trying to catch ways this man and his family coped with this difficulty. The man said nothing. He showed us more pictures of his son. He showed us great video montages of his son battling the disease. He made one mention of the power of family. He didn’t mention God. He didn’t mention God and the hope God provides. He didn’t mention prayer.
As the son was dying, the family took the boy home, which they heavily documented with more pictures. By the end of the keynote speaker’s story, I don’t think there was a dry eye in the room. People jumped up to give him a standing ovation. I wasn’t effected by this story. All the speaker gave us was a sad, sad story of his son dying. No credit was given to God. He never mentioned God. There was no hope in the story. It was hopeless. People jumped up and applauded this speaker because the story was so sad. But he left the audience with NOTHING. He left the audience with no hope, nothing to look to, except the power of family.
I thought of my friend who is a very recent young widow. It hasn’t been a year since her husband passed away, leaving her with three kids, whom she home schooled. She is a Christian. I won’t tell you her life is all roses and sunshine. She struggles day by day with the loss of her husband and what her future holds for her. There is something that confuses her as she walks through this valley. People keep telling her she seems happy, so content. She questions herself and ask, “I do?” She confides in me that many times she is not happy. Many times she is angry.
We talk often about how she is doing. I’ve told her I’m here for her and I will walk along side her as she makes this journey through the valley of the shadow of death. When I listened to this sad sad story of a father losing his son, I thought of my friend. I compared the two in my head. This speaker gave us a sad story. And that was it, nothing more. It was just something to cry about. My friend has the Holy Spirit in her. There is hope. She exudes hopefulness. People keep telling her she seems so happy and content because they see the hope within her. She talks about God all the time. She talks about praying to Him, crying out to Him. Hers is not just a sad story, hers is a testimony of the hope all us Christians have within us. When we face trials and tribulations, we can turn to God. God has told us to.
“Cast your cares upon Me for I care for you.” We aren’t asked to journey alone. He tells us to allow Him to carry us. And then give a reason for the hope that is in us when people ask.
I went away from the keynote session sad. I was sad for this family who doesn’t know the truth. They believe in the power of family (whatever that means). Yet they have no hope. God is our hope, and they don’t know God. They don’t know the true God.
My friend knows the true God. The Holy Spirit lives in her because she has accepted Jesus Christ as her Savior. She can tell you the date and time she accepted Him. She knows the truth. She’s not offering a sad story for people to be sad with her. She hasn’t curled up in a corner hoping the world will just go away. She is coping with the death of her husband by continuing to love God. She knows God loves her. She has hope. She has much hope.