Loss

This is simply not a post I want to write but I do want to share so that you'll know where I'm at, personally speaking. I had a bunch of posts pre-scheduled because we were down in Texas visiting my family. My dad, as some of you are aware, is battling cancer. We flew down to Texas immediately following the wedding of Jonathan's brother, Bryant, and we expected to be down south for a good 10 days.

Two days following the wedding we received an early morning phone call informing us that Jonathan's other brother, Landon, fell asleep at the wheel of his vehicle while he was returning home from Bryant's wedding, crashed into a tree and died.

My family graciously sent us back to Oregon so that we could be with our family here. The memorial service was this past weekend.

What do you say in times like these? There really are no words. People come up to give us whatever comfort that they can and we take the fact that they've approached us in the first place to mean that they care a great deal about how we're doing as a family. In other words, there are few wrong things to say in these moments. Everyone is trying their very best to share their heart and we so appreciate that.

Landon was an excellent brother, a fantastic brother-in-law and truly the best of men. I haven't figured out how to tell his young nephew (my son) that we won't be seeing him anytime soon. How do you explain these things to a two year old? How do you explain these things to a thirty year old? The question of "why" inevitably rears its rather ugly head.

These things do make sense, really. We firmly believe that God is in control and He has a plan in this. Although we might not see, know, or understand it now, and have to live with great sacrifice and pain - we say and believe with assurance that God is good all of the time, all of the time He is good. He cannot be otherwise and He promised never to give us more than we can bear. He knows we will not crumble but that it would be hard not to. He offers His help and we accept it because if we didn't, we'd truly be lost.

Landon was 19, but he demonstrated depth of character that only a 50 year old could. I'm not just saying that because he was my brother. I'm saying it because it's true. You've never met anyone like Landon in your whole life. I hope you do though, because it's a blessing to have the friendship and the love of such a genuine person.

There is a lot I could say and a lot I won't say. I just wanted to post a notice somewhere at some point to let you know. Our family would love and appreciate the prayers. Some of you know and have been praying for that we are extremely grateful. We have been overwhelmed (in the good sense) by the love and support we've received during this time - which is ongoing. It's going to be a journey, that's for sure. But it's one that we will walk in faith, believing, without doubting that God knew, God knows and God loves.

Blessed be the Name of the Lord.

Even if it's not your general habit to click on Youtube videos, I'd ask as a courtesy that you click on this one.



Check out Landon's last blog post which I now think is more than cool.