What Really Matters

I sat at Women of Faith this year and listened to Karen James tell her heartbreaking story of loss. I cried my eyes out when she told how she came to spend a week at the bottom of a mountain while a full force rescue was under way. Her husband and the love of her life, Kelly James, was stuck somewhere on that mountain and all she could do was pray that he would be found. I should of had a box of kleenex devoted for this very occasion so when a friend of mine asked me this past week if I would like to borrow Karen's book (Holding Fast) that she wrote after she had to bury her husband I said yes even though I knew (and told my friend) it was going to make me cry. Whelp...I was oh so right and of course the only time I really have to read is in the parent pick up line at Brooke's school so who knows what those other parents think of the crazy chick crying in the pick up line. I just finished the book tonight and if you haven't read it I can highly recommend it (don't let the crying scare you)....she bravely details the tragic events that played out in her life and the lives of her step children when her husband (and two of his friends) went for a "quick" climb and never made it down. She depicted how God reveled himself to her through this tragedy. The book makes you think about the things in life that really matter and how much time we waste on what doesn't. It makes you see that God never leaves us (even in the darkest imaginable times) and there are no coincidences in this life, we are all part of His master plan. As I read the last few pages of the book I began to take comfort in the fact that God has already read the end of MY book....he knows the whole plan and sees the whole picture...which ultimately frees me up to just live.....which means I have time to enjoy what really matters in this life. With thanks to my friend Tracey for letting me borrow the book, to Karen James for putting her feelings into words for the world to read, and to God for allowing me to enjoy the little things that matter so dearly.