How God Prepared Me for My Dad's Death

My dad died unexpectedly on August 15. That day he died I was listening to podcasts that had these words below. God was giving me understanding and comfort just before the tragedy had become known.

Notes from Podcasts

• Our trust is not in the outcome of our circumstances. It is in Christ Jesus and we know that His grace is sufficient for whatever life might hurl at us.
• True trust is not trusting in an outcome or an answer. It is trusting that God is good, God is loving, God is with me, and if I need to know something He will let me know.
• When you go through pain just cling to God.
• You can only grow in love when you grow in knowing that you are loved by God.
• The most important question is "How much do you know that God loves you?"
  
• We don't have to understand why things happen. We just have to know that it happened and God is there in the midst of it sharing and showing His love.
• There is a loving God who stands above everything that happens in this life. Whether we can understand or not understand why things happen the one thing we can know is that God is in the midst of it. Where is God in the midst of tragedy? He is there to comfort, to sustain people, to meet their need right where they are.
  
  Here is a link to the "Grace in Suffering" Podcast

Below are things I personally wrote on that day from thought, as responses to others, or spurred from podcasts. God was working through me to give comfort to myself. I looked back on these after I got word of his death. The chances of me listening to the Grace in Suffering podcast on that day are mathematically very low. God worked for months through my feelings, preferences, workload, mental and physical condition, listening speed, discoveries, and interactions to have me hear that on the day my dad died. I think I am more comforted by the fact that God worked so intricately to prepare me than I am by even the words themselves.

Notes I Wrote

• I don't doubt that I know God as my father anymore than I doubt I know my biological father.
• Drawing near to God means we experience His love and thus we become more loving to others which ultimately fulfills the law anyway.
• I was never successful at loving until I realized I was loved. I was never successful at trusting until I stopped trying. I was never successful at doing until I started being. I was never successful at living until I let Life live for me.
• I feel more perfect because of His righteousness given to me, more significant because of His power to work through me. I do feel less capable and less confident in myself because I know those are His qualities and not mine. I don't feel more miserable as a Christian because I don't measure up because I know God threw away the measuring stick to give me a hug.
• Trust is putting your security in God. Saying "I'm going to do what you want God and I know it will be good for me"
• People don't always need answers. Sometimes they just need love, compassion, and comfort. You can show people that God cares by showing them that you care.