“Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all… The Lord redeems the soul of His servants, and none of those who trust in Him shall be condemned.” ‒ Psalms 34:19, 22 (NKJV)
Often, I’m ‘fill in the blank’ at God. I recently learned that a father-figure back home was diagnosed with colon cancer. And I know some of our congregation’s stories and how sorrow touches each and every one of us more often than we wish it ever would. Years ago, I officially lost more friends to suicide than to combat. In 2018 alone, I lost a mentor to cancer, two battle buddies to suicide, and one of my soldiers passed away alone. I still find that a hard one.