Tired

Yesterday was one interesting day. It started out completely normal; then general chaos of getting all of us up and ready for church. We don't have to drive there anymore of course so that saves some time! Anyway, went to church....Everything was going well. Wait, I need to give you some history first.....

Matt and I are a part of a small group. We started meeting when we were doing 40 Days of Purpose, it's been almost a year since then and we are still meeting every Sunday night. It has been so awesome to see how God has been working in our lives through this group. There are two other couples and our leader is a single guy and there's another single gal. So 8 of us total. They have proved to be so faithful to us...It's just awesome. Anyway, about 3 months ago, we were in the middle of doing a study and our leader broke down. He was really struggling with some things and needed us to listen and pray. It was kind of uncomfortable but awesome since it appeared that we were now going beneath the surface of the small group thing. Then about a month later it was my turn. You might remember my blog entry about that night at our small group meeting where God forced me to get real and share some secret struggles that I was having with my group. So God has been good, forcing us to get involved in each other's lives and help each other out. Little did we know just how deep we were going to go.

Back to present, yesterday morning. I was on the platform, getting ready to sing with the worship team. I glanced over the sanctuary looking for this gal who is our group. I spotted her husband, but didn't see her. When it was time for meet and greet, I saw her a made a beeline for her. The guy who is the leader of our group had spotted her as well and met me at her side. (He had, earlier in the week, come over and asked us to pray for her and her husband.) I could tell she had been crying so I asked, "What's going on?" She starts to cry harder. Then she shows us her ring finger, there are no wedding rings on it. He asks, "Did you lose them?" She shakes her head no. Then she says, "I'm leaving him (her husband). I have a lump in my breast and an abnormal pap smear. I think I'll be moving to Texas." WHAT?!?!??!?!? I was devastated. This dark cloud come over my heart. I have never dealt with anything like this with someone I am close to.The leader and I looked at each other. There was nothing we could say right then, we were in the middle of the church service! I asked her to come home with us after church so we could talk some more. As I climbed the platform once again, I saw her sitting down. This woman can usually be described as completely joyful. She is just constantly bubbly. Yesterday she sat there stonefaced. It was awful. After church, she came over and we spent the afternoon talking. Our leader was there and he decided that he, Matt and the other man in our group would go to this couple's house and talk with the husband. So they did that and then we all gathered at our house. It was so hard. There was this....thing, just hanging out there. Well we talked for a while, anointed them and prayed, and they decided to seek help (professional as opposed to our non professional!) So God is good once again. However, it was so uncomfortable to know very personal things about other people that you care about. But I guess that's what small groups are supposed to do. I mean we could still just be meeting every week and doing our nice bible study and going home and never getting involved in each other's lives. But, and I'll use some lyrics here, if we are the Body, why aren't His arms reaching? We are called to do life together as the body, that means the crappy stuff as well as the good. So a very tiring, but successful day.