One of the heroes of faith for me is my friend Janie.

I will always remember the day she shared her grief with me.  Her losses were great and would overwhelm/crush/smother/demoralize anyone. Everyone.

I sat across from her in my office.

I’m the pastor, the one charged/ordained/called to remind people of God… to point them to Him.

In those moments of raw heartache and anguish all my rote answers seemed hollow, impotent, canned, cliché. I knew Janie. I knew the details. I wanted to offer her something substantive, real, O God I wanted Him to show up in some way that I couldn’t.

By the way… so many of the “rote”/cliché answers I couldn’t offer as a 42 year old pastor  I can offer now, though altered a bit, because of the journey I’ve lived…  a younger man cannot talk of God the way an older man may. Read my blogs in another 15 years if you really want some sagely insight!

So there she sat… wronged, despairing, despondent, lamenting with alligator tears and in broken voice said, “… and in all of this I have never known God’s loving heart as I now do.”

I sat there paralyzed by her story… a story I knew nothing of. The story of a God who is there, really there, always there.  I’ve found Him since, but I’ve never forgotten how Janie reminded me of Him and pointed me to Him.

– Craig McConnell