[Please read this in its entirety. There is an announcement regarding a missions-related contribution we are making during the month of April.]

This weekend I re-read a little book my mom wrote 21 years ago – “The Death of a Dream.” I won’t tell you everything in the book, but I will tell you that among other things, the material includes a biblical viewpoint on the ten stages of grief that are common to those who are going through loss. Loss for any reason – death, unrealized dreams, divorce, break-ups, job changes, etc. – is still loss.

Right now I’m fluctuating between stages. But don’t you know, I seem to be stuck on one of the elements of “physical distress symptoms.” In my case, it’s been a little comical. In fact, I feel like I’m currently the poster child for the following sentence taken from the ebook: “Many experience an inability to concentrate on even simple tasks.” If I tried to explain to you how long it took me to decide between chicken and beef the other day . . . well, you’d think that I’m making it up. And this morning? This morning’s dilemma – and at this stage, I did see it as a “dilemma” – was whether to wear the orange “Chicago” shirt or the pink “Indiana” shirt. I was literally frozen in the middle of my bedroom, staring into the dresser drawer, for more minutes than I care to share on this public site.

I tell you that for two reasons.

First, grief is “normal” – it might not “equal” someone else’s level of grief, but it’s your grief, and therefore, very real. Your mind and body will react in various ways and at different intervals of time from another person who may be experiencing the same grief. But it is grief nonetheless. No matter the intensity, each of us goes through similar stages while walking through the valley of our trial.

Secondly, although the changes in my life are very real at the moment, they took on a whole new perspective this afternoon. Some long-time friends of our family serve as missionaries in a country where all that they own and all the material possessions that they have earned and worked for were just taken from them by a very evil and militant group within the country. Lives have been threatened, property destroyed and overtaken, and projects that were bringing water into the villages have been halted and the materials confiscated. In fact, our friends are headed back to the U.S. with great fear for the believers they have left behind.

Orange shirt? Pink shirt? Where to work? Where to live? It all sort of faded into nothingness upon hearing the tragic story of those whose “death of a dream” is truly on a life-or-death scale. Yet in His great wisdom, our Lord allowed each of us to face our individual burdens for reasons we may never know . . . or understand.

As I sought the Lord in prayer and through His Word this afternoon, I was reminded that in the midst of it all, our friends (and I) are each “surrounded with songs of deliverance!” (Psalm 32:7) Therefore, we can say from deep within our hearts the words of Psalm 92:2: “I will declare His lovingkindness in the morning and His faithfulness every night.” He is still God – all day, every day.

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If you would like to read The Death of a Dream for yourself, you can now download it for your Kindle. (Or your iPhone, Android, or Blackberry Kindle app, or your Kindle for PC, Mac, or iPad) 

During the entire month of April, one dollar from every purchase of this ebook will be given to the mission work in Mali, West Africa.