House Burned Down

My cousin's house burned down yesterday. All the way to the ground. They didn't have time to get one item out. No one was hurt.

I can't imagine having the security of my home denied me. My home is, like any other's, a place to decompress and find solitude when I need it. A retreat from life.

He had built his home 30 years ago with the help of others. It was built behind his parent's house, where he had lived all his life. He purchased the land from our aunt. Ten years ago his parents, my aunt and uncle, got divorced after 50 years of marriage. They were in their late 70s. They sold that house in front, the one he had been raised in. When my uncle died a few years ago, some of his kids didn't speak to each other or their mom at the funeral. Now, after all that, his home is gone.

Oh, and by the way, his wife has been fighting cancer for the last two years. Talk about a Job-like story.

We are so spoiled to be devastated when our perfect lives don't go our way. Our 401k tanks, we don't get a promotion, and we may even be off work for a while. Most of us have blinders on to other people and their problems. How can we ever start to minister when we don't know what empathy even means?

But what do you say when someone is hurting like this? If someone has lost a child or spouse, or been told they have cancer. Or had their family destroyed, and their house burned down. Do they want to hear how much God loves them? Should then be the time to remind them that God has a plan for their life?

Now is the time only to love and to act. Talk can come later, when it can be soaked in. All those things should be shared, but only when they are ready to receive.

Many Christians feel that the only witness they need to be is how they live their lives. I disagree most of the time, feeling that they need to share the story of why they live like that and Whom they are living for. But I do think this is a time or situation for no talk, and more action. And more prayer. Prayer is the least used weapon in a Christian's arsenal, even though it's the most powerful.

Sorry for a little rambling today.

Please pray for my cousin.

And remember, Christian is a verb.