Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today, yes and forever (Hebrews 13:8).

"New" doesn't always mean improved, does it?

Corrie Ten Boom started a new life when she walked through the door of the concentration camp.

Joni Eareckson Tada started a new life the moment her head hit that hidden rock at the bottom of the lake.

Mother started a new life the afternoon she found Dad in his favorite chair out on the side lawn . . . the still-warm yet lifeless victim of a massive coronary.

Pat started a new life on Saturday morning at 9:30 when her husband announced that he was filing for divorce . . . "and there isn't anything to discuss."

Janie started a new life when the doctor told her, "I can't give you a date. All I can tell you is that you don't have long to live and that there's going to be some intense suffering ahead for you."

Anabel started a new life that day in the doctor's office when he announced, "Your son is incurably ill and will be hopelessly retarded."

* * *

This "new" simply means something you have not experienced before, and I'm quite sure that some of you are experiencing a new life this very day...or someone dear to you is painfully changing from the old to the new. I also know that some of the adjectives attached to this new life are not at all pretty:

Lonely . . . I'm all by myself.

Weary . . . I'm so tired.

Empty . . . There's a void, I have no purpose.

Frustrating . . . I feel so utterly defeated.

Hurting . . . I had no idea how painful this would be.

Hopeless . . . It's too hard--I'm emotionally drained and stressed out.

Fearful . . . I'm scared--I don't know where I'm going.

Discouraged . . . What do I do? How do I keep on? I just can't do it.

Sorrowful . . . It seems like grief has enveloped me. I can't remember pleasant times, and I wonder if I'll ever be happy again.

There are times when my emotions have been so very high that remembering or reasoning or studying were virtually impossible; and if not impossible, something that I just couldn't settle down to do at that point in my life.

There have been times when I have been so close to the mountain, so overwhelmed by the immensity of the mass in front of me, so incapacitated because of my emotional involvement,

that it has been beyond my ability to gain a proper perspective of where I'm standing.

Then is when I must force myself to remember:

My circumstances have changed, but my God has not changed.

He is as close to me today as He was yesterday.

He still loves me more than I can possibly comprehend.

He still lives within me to meet this tragic, difficult circumstance for me and through me.

I will not be destroyed if I will only let Him face each second, each moment of each day in His strength, since mine is gone.

I cannot understand His ways. I do not know what He is planning. But I do know His heart. He loves me.

* * *

I would like to help . . . please let me.

These simple words that you read each day...

hold on to them tenaciously,

set your mind on them,

not on your emotions or your circumstances.

I love you.