A VERY VERY SAD DAY TODAY

It has been an extremely sad day for us all here today.  Our very dear friend Darryl lost his battle with cancer at lunch time today.  

Daryl - you will always be loved and never forgotten

 In the end it all happened so suddenly.  It was less than three months ago that Daryl was first diagnosed with Cancer and  It was only three days ago that we heard that the Chemo was not working and that they expected that Daryl had two weeks to a month to live.  This was truly devastating for me personally, as I never even imagined that Daryl would not beat this hideous disease.  I know in my own heart and mind,  I believed that his family here really needed him and that God would heal him.  I did not even consider the possibility that Daryl would not be around to join us on our much planned for and anticipated holiday we had all booked to  take together on a house boat in January next year.  I mean it was only three weeks ago that he and Steve were sitting together around their dining room table discussing  what they would take and where we would go, and he was telling Steve that he would be right to steer it.

When we got the call on Thursday to tell us that he was not expected to live, that was unimaginable and unthinkable to me.  However,  my plans aren't God's plans, and I need to trust God in this as hard as it is proving to be,.  It has been such an incredibly tough and sad year and I truely wonder when this sadness and grief will ever stop.  I have been angry with God,  but in his gentle way he has reminded me that he is my ROCK.
Yesterday he spoke to me with the following verse

1 Samuel 2:2

² “There is no one holy like the Lord;
    there is no one besides you;
    there is no Rock like our God.

He reminded me that I don't need to understand his ways, I just need to stand firm in Him,  He is our Rock, especially when life gets tough and we get bogged down in the grief and pain of loosing those we love.   

This morning he spoke to me in the words of this song

Blessed be your name in the land that is plentiful

Where your streams of abundance flow

Blessed be your name

Blessed by your name when I'm found in the desert place

Though I walk through the wilderness

Blessed be your name

Pre Chorus

Every blessing you pour out

I'll turn to praise

When the darkness closes in

Lord still I will say

Chorus

Blessed be the name of the Lord

Blessed be your name

Blessed be the name of the Lord

Blessed be your glorious name

Blessed be your name when the sun's shining down on me

When the world's all as it should be

Blessed be your name

Blessed be your name on the road marked with suffering

Though there's pain in the offering

Blessed be your name

Bridge

You give and take away

You give and take away

My heart will choose to say

Lord blessed be your name.

I have been struggling to say Blessed be your name Lord, but it is not just in the good and plentiful times that God wants us to acknowledge him and bless his name but in the hard and painful road of suffering too, and I have been really struggling to do this.  Today, even though I don't feel like it,  I am choosing to acknowledge that the Lord's name is to be praised and blessed.

The lines "You give and take away", have made me thankful for the time that he has allowed Daryl to be in our lives,  would we not have wanted to know and love Daryl like we have,  is knowing and loving Daryl worth the pain.... YES YES YES, a million times,  he has been a wonderful friend, a wonderful husband, a wonderful father, a wonderful collegue,  a bit of a tease,  he had a wonderful sense of humor, an adventurous spirit, he had a real servant heart and our lives are all richer for knowing him, so tonight I say, thank you Lord for the time you have given Daryl to us, for the example he has been to us, for his acts of service to those whom he loved and those around him, and  for sparing him the pain from his sickness any more  and taking him home to be with you.  I am so thankful for the times we have had this year to be part of their homegroup, to share our faith and the word of God around their dining room table.  These were special and precious times. 

Does this mean I won't shed more tears, no,  I expect there will be many more tears. Does it mean we won't miss him dreadfully, no,we will miss him often.  Does it mean we won't feel the pain his family is feeling, no, we will share in that pain.    We will feel all these things for many days, months and years to come, as I am finding out from the loss of my own mum,  but we know that he is now safe in God's care, and that God will be our ROCK in the times when our grief and our loss seems overwhelming.  

Tonight I choose to say thank you Lord for a life well lived, well loved and well served.  I thank you for the friendship of not only Daryl but his beautiful wife Brenda and his lovely children also.. I pray your protection over them, your peace to fill their hearts, and your light to light their way when it all seems too hard.  I pray that you will give them an extra measure of yourself, and you will be a father to them when they need a father's presence.  I pray you will give them an extra measure of strength to keep going when it seems like it is all to hard and that they will know you are their ROCK,  a sure foundation, and you will sustain them and hold them up.

Darryl, Brenda and family

I would ask that you pray for them in the days ahead too.