Simple Isn’t the Same as Easy (01/31/2026)

This week has reminded me that Christ’s Way is simple but not easy. This week, my younger brother suffered another stroke on the way to Mayo Clinic to seek help with his stage 4 pancreatic cancer. This week, my 97-year-old mother had a heart event and was hospitalized. This week a special friend’s husband died. And as I sat in prayer quietly with my LORD, I realized that what is required of me is love for these precious individuals and love for my LORD who is with them all. It is simple, but that doesn’t make the week easy.

All our lives, yours and mine and those of our loved ones matter. I feel alone, but I know I am not. My favorite psalm, Psalm 121, reminds me:

The LORD will guard your soul.

The LORD will guard your coming and going

both now and forever.

My mind and my hand find my pocket cross and the image of Christ’s suffering. And there is the Father holding the Son and the Spirit lovingly strengthening the Son.

Today, I am simply struggling because I’m not in control of anything but myself and how I will behave and what I will choose to do in these moments. I realize I am not the first to feel this way nor will I be the last. And I struggle to think or to write.

I bring these needs to you and ask you to join me and pray for my brother Randy and his family, to pray for my mother, Bertie, and to pray for my friend Dorothy and her family.

Until tomorrow, let us all love well.