A Celebration of Life
Birthdays are for celebrating life, and today was no different. Today would be Jim's 62nd birthday; and as hard as it it to grasp our minds on how different life is now that he is no longer walking day to day with us; we can be comforted knowing that Jim is celebrating in a way that we can only imagine!

I will never understand the pain that my wife, Heather, or her sister, Holly, or mom, Karen, are experiencing. And as a Husband, and Son-in-Law, I wish there was something I could do to help alleviate the sorrow and suffering. However as we heard this past week from our Pastor, Tom Harrison, grief is necessary. It is not a sign of weakness, or a sign of disbelief. Just because you are a believer, doesn't prevent you, or isolate you, from being able to grieve. Just as it is written in Acts 8, verse 2, we see how Godly men mourned deeply for the death of Stephen. Pastor Tom went on to quote Philip Yancey’s Prayer. On page 220: “When I hear a person describe a remarkable escape from an airplane crash, I cannot help thinking about the people who died in the same crash, many of them praying just as fervently. And although I rejoice over reports of miraculous healings, I also remember with a pang the file drawer in my office bulging with stories of those who have not been healed. I do not doubt that God answers prayer. Rather, I struggle with the inconsistency of those apparent answers.”

Although it seems unfair to us that we must now learn how to live our lives without the presence of Jim Hill as the husband, father, and grandfather; it is also important that we remain grounded in what we hold to be true, in what we have our hearts believe in, and where we find our strength.

Tonight, God provided words of affirmation to both Heather and I. As we sat in the midst of thousands of others worshipping alongside one another being led by the Hillsong United Band, our hearts were pierced by the lyrics of a new song. It was a song that neither of us had heard before, and it was as if God was speaking the words directly to our hearts. I have attempted to attach the song/lyrics together in a video format that I created at the bottom of this post (lets keep our fingers crossed it works). I hope that the Spirit will tug at your heart as It did ours tonight.