Being thankful; and thinking of others.

A few weeks ago, as I was coping with how unwell and in pain Mum was, as well as grappling with a decision to end a significant friendship, I became aware of a number of friends who were struggling either with their own health, or the health of a young child.

 As I thought about what some of these friends were going through, it made my own stresses pale into (almost) insignificance, at least for a little while. As I prepared to go to bed that night, I commented on Facebook that I was conscious of the struggles of these others, and prayed God's blessing on them.

One friend (who was also no stranger to managing health related crises in his family) wrote this comment in response to my Facebook status:

Breathing deeply in one's own chaos
allows fresh insight into others' lives!

I think there's a lot of truth in those words, and am glad that I had the opportunity to gain that fresh insight into the lives of some particular friends. 

This all happened about three weeks ago, and I was reminded of it all by a conversation I had tonight with one of these friends whose health is still not great, casting a shadow on her whole family. We talked about how we are both grateful for the support we have from those who are close to us, and for the love and prayers that so many others have offered on our behalf.

Last night I sent out an email update to members of my two Church Councils and the Pastoral Relations Committee of my home Presbytery (as I do on a fairly regular basis to keep them up to date with what's going on). This morning I received a reply from one of the PRC members, who was quite excited that things are going so well for Mum, and also delighted that Mum's current wellbeing is such a great answer to prayer. 

I mentioned this comment to the friend I was chatting with tonight, as we talked about the sense of being held before God by others' prayers. She commented that sometimes it's hard to see, when we have good days, because we forget how bad it has been.

This was all a reminder to me to be thankful for the presence of God, and the answers to prayer, and the kindness of people who pray and write and ring and care. I really don't know how those who don't have a community of people around them, caring and praying for them, can cope with hard times like these.