Love Happens...at Home Depot

Ken is out of town, giving me a chance to watch all of the sub-par chick flicks that he would only laugh at, were he forced to sit through them. Last night I watched Love Happens. As far as the main love story went, it was mediocre. However, I really liked a side plot about one of the characters who is grieving the loss of his 12 year old son. Walter, a former contractor, is guilted by his sister into attending one of Burke's (the main character) A-Okay workshops on living through the loss of a loved one. Walter has a hard time getting in touch with his emotions, but finally breaks down and tells the group that he has lost everything since the death of his son. His son died on Walter's construction site so he couldn't face going back to work. He lost his company, his wife, is working as a night janitor and can't even walk into a hardware store without feeling the death of his son all over again. As a final exercise, the whole group takes a field trip to Home Depot. In a really touching scene, all of these people who have lost someone significant to them, gather around Walter, and fill up his cart with all the things he will need to start his life as a contractor again. They all leave Home Depot a little stronger for helping Walter.

That scene reminded me of a lunch I had with some friends yesterday. One of us is going through a particularly difficult time. In retrospect, it felt a lot like that scene at Home Depot--we are all in the same boat--none of us has all of the answers or has "figured out" life. We are all, in a sense, grievers, learning to live our lives with God in the midst of pain, disappointment, loss and sorrow. But in that pain and sorrow, we know what to fill up our carts with. Through out the lunch, we just kept coming back to Jesus. Yes, life is painful. Yes, it is often not what we would have planned if we were in control. Being a believer does not automatically safe guard us from deep sorrow (actually, it often opens us up to even deeper sorrow, but that's another post altogether). But we CAN trust the One who is in control. We can look at the cross and see the extent to which He will go for us. We can look at Him and see the depth of the Father's love for us, even when that Fatherly love may not make a whole lot of sense. This is the essence of a life of faith. Choosing to see life through the lens of what God says is true. Though all of life may contradict, God does love us. He has not forgotten us. We are not beneath His notice or beyond His power to protect. He is in the business of saving us from the power and lingering effects of sin and transforming our world through His radical love.

One of the great mysteries about the love of God is how to experience it. I once heard from a youth minister back in high school that the only way to really keep hold of God's love is to constantly be giving it away. That has made more and more sense to me as I have needed others to show me God's love and as God has given me opportunity to do the same. As we encouraged our friend yesterday, we all grew a little stronger as we reminded ourselves that God is everything He claims to be and we can trust and obey Him. We all walked out of that restaurant a little stronger.