Heart Aches

I shared a link with you on Friday night of a blog that I came across.

It's the story of a wife whose husband, a merely 28 and completely healthy, was diagnosed with cancer. He is still alive, but from what I read is in the very last days of his journey here on earth.

As I read her post I kept waiting to see the name of Jesus or a cry to God in each of her entries, but nothing. Never did I see anything. I just knew that at any moment I would come across something that showed she was a believer. The love she had for her husband, the ability to fight and fight and fight and fight, I mean, that had to come from Jesus or at some point she was going to break down.

My heart aches every time I read her posts. Each day I check to see if maybe i've missed something and she's really a believer, but still nothing.

There are clearly many more believers who are concerned about her and her husbands eternal home as I've seen comments left on her entries. No one has said anything negative... as a fellow believer I read them as pleas to come to the only One who can heal and free them for all of eternity. And again, I keep checking to see if maybe she'll reply to someone's comment.... anything.

But nothing.

Today as I was reading, one of her friends commented about how we were wrong to assume anything about their beliefs and offer up our opinion. They stated that the anonymous commenters must not know this couple or else we would only want to comfort and encourage.... and pushing religion on them is doing neither of those. She went on to say that the purpose of the blog was to share what's going on with their family and friends, not tell the world their thoughts and beliefs. And further, what they believe is up to them, it's no one else's problem. She even said she didn't care if any one was a believer or not - she only cared about who they were as a person.

I don't say this to criticize or judge or anything related to that. I say it because my heart breaks for this couple and I don't even know where to stand or how to respond.

As a follower of Christ I want to respond correctly. I want my words to be straight from Him and to not be taken the wrong way. I want to approach this in just the right way. My immediate reaction when thinking of someones death is to wonder if they know Him. I can't ignore it. I can't not care.

What are we supposed to do in a situation like this?

(What I really wanted to do was comment right back to that person and share how I really felt. In the wife's about me section it says, and I quote, "feel free to say what you want at any time during this adventure". Oh how I wanted to copy and paste that back to the non-caring person. We were doing just that.... saying what we want, because we care.)

We are called to love. I do agree that pushing is not good for some people. They will shut down and push you away until they are ready to face it themselves (trust me, i speak from a personal place), but we've got to draw the line some where. We can't just sit back and do nothing. We are called to share with everyone that we come across the One who is able to save.

So how do we take this reaction of non-believers and respond in the right way? Because there is clearly a way to approach them. We are not called to be the Holy Spirit; it is not our job to convict, but geez, sometimes it's hard to know where to stand.

I'm not giving up. I don't know how He will work or get through to them, but I know He can in His way and His time. I'm waiting for the day to come across the blog and see some kind of words about Christ......

pray with me?