situational irony

I have not really been in the mood to recap the past few weeks. I have not wanted to come here and admit defeat, share pain, disappoinment. But life is full of joy and pain. This recent season and has been extreme joy accompanied by extreme pain. Some of it was highlighted in my little time with Laura. A woman gave birth. Extreme pain. Extreme joy. A new baby in the house. A dad who has to go back to Iraq. Extreme joy. Extreme pain. On the same day I posted about how much I loved my life, my Uncle James took his. Extreme joy. Extreme pain. At a season where my life was good, appreciated, loved, a man I knew, a man 18 months younger than my father, who has dimples like mine, took his own life because his was unbearable. That hurts deeply. Then the silly little camera I blogged about below was stolen off my porch before I even got home to open it. Joy. Pain. The camera is being replaced. Uncle James is in Heaven. But he got robbed too. Horribly so. Handicapped, multiple sclerosis, a life of pain, depression, cancer survivor, lost everything he owned in a house fire months ago. He got robbed by the evil one. He is now healed. He is forgiven. There is joy in knowing that death has no sting or victory over us. We have been restored. We are one with the Father. But there is pain in watching him suffer, his family left without a father. I get angry. I cannot get angry at God. He is the good guy. He is the restorer. No poverty, no sickness, no injustice comes from the kind, loving Father. You can't give away what you don't have and He doesn't possess sickness, but life. I can go round and round with a million questions as to why. I ask it almost every day. But then I set my affections on His kindness, His faithfulness, His goodness and I turn my aggression to the evil one. I have his number. I know how he operates. He is slick. Sly. Ugly. Mean. Hateful. No good. Rotten. He wants me to blame the other guy. But that would mean I am taking sides with him. I refuse. I align all my affection, my faith, my hope, my future in Christ Jesus. That's the oldest trick in the book, to make it look like someone else did it. Job got blessed in the end. It is my prayer that James' family walk in the fullness of what Christ has for them, a double portion of it. And that every area of lack, be fully restored.