People come, but some weren’t meant to stay.

Yesterday you had a job, today you don’t.

One minute you are overcome by joy and the next you’re taken by crippling disappointment.

Last week you were married, this week you’re navigating your new normal in the wake of divorce.

Just a few days ago there was a heartbeat, this week silence filled the room like wet concrete.

I’m not going to tell you it’s okay because right now it’s not. It sure doesn’t feel that way. I’m not going to say that all things work for good or that God gives His hardest battles to his toughest soldiers, because what in the Pinterest theology is that? And I’m not even going to think about telling you that Lord won’t give you more than you can handle, because He will and maybe He is now – and it hurts.

Like a glimpse into the pits of hell, it hurts.

O Lord, how many are my foes! Many are rising against me; many are saying of my soul, “There is no salvation for him in God.” Selah. But you, O Lord, are a shield about me, my glory, and the lifter of my head.I cried aloud to the Lord, and he answered me from his holy hill. Selah. I lay down and slept; I woke again, for the Lord sustained me (Psalm 3:1-5).

But what I will tell you, is this:

When it’s not okay, my Jesus sustains me.

When I am broken, He alone is my glory.

He is the lifter of my bowing head and the reviver of joy to my weeping soul.

When I am vulnerable and unable to stand in my own defense He is my safety. He is my shield. In the moment of my sadness, I am swept away to taste and see crazy, unplumbed peace.

When hope is merely a memory, He remains sovereign and steadfast in being the keeper of my days. When I am weary of this journey He gives rest in such abundance. His pockets are deep.

He carries me when my feet cannot go any further.

And when no one else will, He fights for my heart.

So, I pray as you dart around these words, you will find pause today in knowing that people come, and people go. Joy and disappointment ebb and flow. You’re disposable at work, and death has a nasty way of sucking the wind right out of your lungs.

But Jesus? He stays.

But Jesus? He is constant.

But Jesus? Death is livin’ on time it borrowed from Him! It is but a doorway!

But to Jesus? You are beloved and deeply cherished. In fact, in the midst of all His creation of millions of stars and galaxies, He chose to ever so tediously knit all of your cells and all of your being together so that you may experience life and experience it to the fullest. In all of His thinking and planning, He thought your life would be a wonderful addition.

For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal (2 Corinthians 4:17-18).