“Karen’s Notes!
Insights from a Glory-Bound Lady”

Selected Notes
Volume 3 Number 43 “When Life is Hard and I Don’t Understand!”

November 11, 2020

You are assuming that this was written in Karen’s Bible study journal on the day she found out that she had cancer, right? Wrong! You are assuming that this was written when she entered Hospice, right? Wrong! This was actually written on December 29th, 2013. She was actually spending time in the Word in Matthew 1:18-25.

Not only does Joseph discover that his beloved Mary is pregnant, now the Angel tells him to get up and marry this precious lady. He did just exactly that (Matthew 1:24-25). Think of how his life changed instantly in that day.

“Then Joseph being raised from sleep did as the angel of the Lord had bidden him, and took unto him his wife: and knew her not till she had brought forth her firstborn son: and he called His name JESUS” (Matthew 1:24-25).

Karen apparently took a long time thinking about how Joseph’s family and friends would think about him. How could he explain how the virgin Mary conceived this child? What would they say behind his back? It was delightful to read about Mary and Joseph, but it must have been very hard for them.

Karen wrote: Life can be very hard, and there are times that I simply don’t understand. It is in these times that I must be committed to learning!

1. I must learn how to be still. “Be still and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10).
Still is “relax, be quiet.” Know is “to find out, be thoroughly acquainted with.”
2. I must learn how to be strong. “Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart: wait, I say, on the LORD” (Psalm 27:14).
3. I must learn how to be serving. “I would ye should understand, brethren, that the things which happened unto me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel” (Philippians 1:12).
4. I must learn to be sensitive. “Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; Who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God” (2 Corinthians 1:3-4).
5. I must learn to be submissive. “You call me Master and Lord: and you say well; for so I am” (John 13:13).

Michael’s observation: To the best of my recollection, nothing particularly difficult was happening in our lives right then. It’s interesting that Karen came to these conclusions before her cancer diagnosis. This doesn’t mean that cancer was easy. It wasn’t. But these same powerful principles were lived out in the hard days because she decided upon them in the good days. That’s something for us all to think about!