Silence allows me to embrace the pain of loss and focus on the things I can influence

Talking to someone this week reminded me that even when we're at our limit, God is still working with us, even if the story looks like it has concluded. A man was being carried to his burial when the Moabites attacked, throwing him down a hill.

The man's touch on Elisha's bones brought him back to life, and he stood up again. God allows us to experience hardship, even when we perceive it as the end, so that we can encounter him. He holds the key to our time and place, and adjusting to this constraint is a challenge we must all face.

Sometimes life's events defy explanation, and their impact is difficult to process. Loss has marked the year — some close, some distant — a poignant reminder of our shared humanity and all that comes with it. While most times I’ll make light of situations as they happen, it’s the emotional context that becomes the most poignant point when dealing with situations like death. You wonder about your mortality, the points in your life, how far you’ve come and what’s left, how many days you possibly have left on this earth, and the complications that can happen.

You are born with a few days, and those days count down whether you like it. It makes you reflect on valuable and not so valuable things. These instances can make you…