There was a popular song by Casting Crowns a few years ago entitled “Praise You In The Storm.”  As I look back on that time period, I’m reminded of a gentleman who was struggling with cancer at the time this song came out.  This gentleman was my husband’s boss, but he became a mentor to my husband after he started working there.

He was a great businessman, but more than that, he was a man of God.  He believed in sharing his faith, and he set a good example for my husband to look up to.  He is the reason for all of the good things that came to pass while my husband worked under him, as he believed in looking out of his hardworking employees.

When he fell ill, he started a Caring Bridge page where he documented his journey through cancer treatments.  He had five beautiful blond-haired, blue-eyed little girls, and it broke our hearts what they were going through.  Sadly, although he praised God throughout his entire ordeal, he lost his battle on Earth with cancer but gained his angel wings in Heaven.

He was an example of praising God through the storms of life.

This tested the faith of those around him, but he did not show any wavering in his own faith.  Instead, he held his head up high and continued to minister to people he encountered even as he struggled with terminal cancer.

The day he died, hundreds gathered in the church watching a video of his life on the large screens on both sides of the stage.  And his niece took the “stage” to sing a song in his honor.  There wasn’t a dry eye in the place, including her, as she had to stop at the end due to the grief she was feeling singing at her uncle’s funeral.

Would you be able to display unwavering faith in God through your storms in life?  I know for me, it has been hard not to question God with what all my family and I have had to face.  However, I think my faith has remained strong throughout each and every situation.  I know I could not have made it this far without my Lord and Savior.

In a situation within my own family, my father became angry with God when we lost my sister, Pamela.  His faith was tested, and he all but turned his back on God at one point.  Who can blame him, really, after he prayed for God to “take care” of his oldest daughter, and yet she killed herself in the end.  That isn’t exactly what my father had envisioned when he prayed asking God to “take care” of her.  And we were all heart broken over the tragic way in which she left this world.  We could not comprehend how this could happen, and yet praising in the midst of our hearts shattering was the very last thing we wanted to do.  It was hard to even breathe in and out at that point.  Yet years later, my dad turned back to God and mended his relationship with Father God.  And, our hearts rejoiced.  I’ll never forget my grandmother asking my dad how he ever planned on seeing Pam again if he was so angry that he turned his back on God.  I am not exactly sure what swayed my dad to turn back to Jesus, but I’m sure glad he did.  Maybe it was a series of things from my grandmother’s words to their prayers, or maybe the cards filled with bible verses that she and my aunt would send finally got to him.  I’m not sure, as at the time he’d open the cards to find what it said on the inside and toss it down immediately.  But maybe a combination of things allowed him to answer to the knock at his heart once more when Jesus stood there asking to come back in.

It’s been several years since my dad answered the knock, and he and Jesus have walked hand in hand together.  I’m sure my dad still has questions, as we all do, but he’s managed to come back to God … and in doing so, he’s dug deeper into his bible and is able to pray “preacher worthy” prayers.  It was not something that happened over night, but we are glad my father found his way back to Jesus.

And we praise Him.