{"id":5016,"date":"2021-03-17T06:05:40","date_gmt":"2021-03-17T11:05:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/?p=5016"},"modified":"2022-04-03T12:06:11","modified_gmt":"2022-04-03T17:06:11","slug":"but-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/2021\/03\/but-god\/","title":{"rendered":"But God (Chapter 11)"},"content":{"rendered":"
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From The Heart Of Ken Shiplet<\/h3>\n

One year ago today Carol fell asleep on this earth and woke up in heaven, in the presence of the Lord. I’ve been in a constant deep grief mode since the first of the year, unable to quit recalling the struggles we went through, especially the last twenty-five days in the hospital and trips I made twice a day, dragging my own oxygen bottle, trying to feed her and keep her alive. And then, staying by her side for seven days in our home till I watched he breathe her last breath. I’ve been unable to settle my thinking with the many “what ifs: and “if only’s” my mind has gone through. Yes, I realize that God is bigger than all of that and that the appointed time for her to die had come, but the emotions still linger.<\/p>\n

BUT today, I’m turning a page in my own life. Notice our grave marker for a moment. Carol’s has her date of birth and her date of death engraved on the stone. But mine has only the date of my birth and then a dash -. You see, I’m living in the dash (and so are you) and I’m committing myself to make the most of the dash for however much longer the Lord chooses.<\/p>\n

The Lord said, “Let not your heart be troubled” (John 14:1). The implication is that I am personally responsible to keep my heart from being “troubled.” And then He told his disciple how to keep their heart from troubling: “Believe (trust) in God, believe also in me.”<\/p>\n

Today, I’m choosing to incorporate celebration into my grief. Every thought and every comment of grief for Carol will be followed with, “but God.”<\/p>\n

EXAMPLE: I miss Carol, but God has her exactly where he wants her. I wish Carol was here to eat this wonderful food, but God has filled her with the taste of heaven. My nights are lonely but God as not left me alone.<\/p>\n

Grieve well, my friends, grieve well.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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From The Heart Of Ken Shiplet One year ago today Carol fell asleep on this earth and woke up in heaven, in the presence of the Lord. I’ve been in a constant deep grief mode since the first of the year, unable to quit recalling the struggles we went through, especially the last twenty-five days […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false},"categories":[148],"tags":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5016"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5016"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5016\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5023,"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5016\/revisions\/5023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}