9 a.m…

I sat down to do an update last night and couldn’t find the words… Irene is certainly in a deep valley… I have struggled with sharing the enormous challenges she is facing each day and yet preserving her dignity through this trial…

As you’ll recall from an earlier update, last week Irene said that she felt like she was “gliding on the prayers of others”… as I was bedside with her @ 2 a.m. last night, the imagery that came to mind related to that comment was that of the Grand Canyon… now that is certainly a deep valley!

I pictured Irene riding a “prayer raft” on the white water of the Colorado River as it winds through the Grand Canyon.  She was literally “gliding on the prayers of others”.  However, Irene was not alone on the raft.  I saw what looked like the image of a man, perhaps Jesus himself, on the raft, directing it on it’s course through the treacherous white waters…  Your prayers are the “raft” carrying Irene during this time…

I’ve also been thinking alot about ultimate life purpose and focus…even more than before!!!!  Psalm 39:4-13 certainly comes to mind…

4 Show me, O LORD, my life’s end
and the number of my days;
let me know how fleeting is my life.

5 You have made my days a mere handbreadth;
the span of my years is as nothing before you.
Each man’s life is but a breath.

6 Man is a mere phantom as he goes to and fro:
He bustles about, but only in vain;
he heaps up wealth, not knowing who will get it.

7 “But now, Lord, what do I look for?
My hope is in you.

8 Save me from all my transgressions;
do not make me the scorn of fools.

9 I was silent; I would not open my mouth,
for you are the one who has done this.

10 Remove your scourge from me;
I am overcome by the blow of your hand.

11 You rebuke and discipline men for their sin;
you consume their wealth like a moth—
each man is but a breath.

12 “Hear my prayer, O LORD,
listen to my cry for help;
be not deaf to my weeping.
For I dwell with you as an alien,
a stranger, as all my fathers were.

13 Look away from me, that I may rejoice again
before I depart and am no more.

All of us want our lives to matter…to count for something that is beyond our lifetime and significant…because life is so short…

Thanks for encouraging us on this journey…

Pushing on,
Dave