Josh Nelson

“Blessed be Your name, when the sun’s shining down on me, when the world’s all as it should be, Blessed be Your name.” The easiest time to praise the Lord and open ourselves up to the Holy Spirit is when “the world’s all as it should be.” We have no complaints and we love our lives, we thank God for all of our blessings and ask for continued favor. They could make a “Life is Good” shirt with Jesus’ face and it would be a great representation of how we feel. Personally, that is a fair glimpse at my summer. The sun has been shining on me and I feel incredibly blessed for all the fantastic relationships that have been put in my life, the cohesion of the Calvin group, and the amazing growth of our small group. There have been so many things that have happened this summer, both large and small, that I can be so thankful for.

All that being said, we have to remember the next lines of the song, “Blessed be Your name, on the road marked with suffering, though there’s pain in the offering, Blessed be Your name.” For anyone that has ever struggled with anything, we know that it is extremely difficult to turn to God and bless His name for what we are going through. If you are imagining that struggle you have faced, multiply it as many times as you can, and we are much closer to realizing the pain Colorado is overcoming. Towards the beginning of the summer I received several texts from friends and family back home, right outside Boston. Wildfires were all over the national news. We would pray for rain, but were terrified of lightning as it could spark a fire in an instant. We would pray for victims and their families as they struggled with losing everything. We went from making s’mores with guests and seeing the joy in their eyes, to realizing how much pain was caused by one of the same fires on a larger scale. Somehow we still had to find a way to Bless His name. Finally rain came, the smoke covering the mountains cleared, and we could rest much easier.

Then I wake up to a text from my best friend saying, “Colorado getting a little too dangerous for my liking between the fires and now this, you should probably just cruise home today.” Soon after receiving this, one of my supervisors came in to tell me about the shooting in Aurora. My heart sank. I was not there, nor in the area, nor knew anyone involved, but my heart sank even further the more I thought about it. Humanity can produce so much good and it can all be wiped away by an act of evil. Sadness covered the nation, sadness covered the state, and sadness covered Snow Mountain Ranch. “The road marked with suffering” could not have been drawn out any clearer after this. The state was in the midst of recovering and someone so cynical took any hope away. There was not much more room for any pain in the offering and this definitely pushed it over the edge, but we sing Blessed be His name. We know He doesn’t enjoy watching tragedy, especially those involving His children, but we need to turn to Him as our rock, our foundation, and our Father.

Personally, sun has been shining down on me, but I’m running alongside the road marked with suffering trying to cry out, Blessed be Your name. We turn to thank you, cry to you, and praise you Father; through everything we know You are there.