I have been getting your devotions for the past two years and I never cease to be amazed! They always seem to speak to me right where I am! My entire life has been a roller coaster of painful and traumatic events, so needless to say the Word of God is my lifeline!

When I wrote to you previously, perhaps a year ago, I shared with you that my only son was terminally ill. The day after Thanksgiving he made the decision to stop his tube feedings and he went home to be with Jesus, Dec. 9th. After all we had been through in his 24 years, I never imagined that his death would cause so much emotional pain!!

I almost laugh when I read Grief Share devotions sometimes suggesting “your loved one’s death can be an opportunity to draw you closer to God”. Recalling 3 years ago when I was struggling with my husbands unloving behavior toward me, my son’s declining condition and others insensitivity to my pain, I shared my struggle with someone I trusted and the suggestion was made that I wasn’t walking close enough with the Lord. I inquired of the Lord as to whether or not that was true and he reminded me that if I was any closer I would LITTERLY be with him. : )

Thank you so much Christine for helping me through this painful and difficult journey of life!! I hope to meet you face to face someday!

Thank you for the words of your post…I am in a 2 day remebrance of the loss of two of my children 21 years ago today for my oldest and 27 years ago this month for my second child. I trust that the Lord is always looking out for my ‘good’ — to make me more like Him. You have great insight and wisdom.

Blessings, In His Joyful Service & Song,

Lori Hunt

First off I am most definitely not a female which will probably mean I’m outnumbered here, but there is something I have to share with you. Almost 30 years ago you recorded “For Those Who Hurt” (by the way I still have the…RECORD, LOL) and you came and did a Fourth of July Concert in Elkhart, Indiana. I’ll spare you all of the details that led me to the Elkhart Baptist School that day in July, but I was sitting mid-stage when you began singing “Carry Me.” Up until that moment I had always LOVED that song, but I had been running, Christine. Running from God not to him, and I was at that concert because God said “Enough running, Son.” In the final stanza when the male voice came over the speakers, it was absolutely as if Jesus himself was talking to me. In my hurt I was crying uncontrollably, much as I am now, and a dear old lady sitting next to me quietly asked if I was okay. I responded through my tears, “not yet, but I will be.”

Christine, I am now grown, have a wonderful wife of 16 years, a 14 year-old daughter who was just baptized a couple of weeks ago, and a nine year old son who still sees me through rose colored glasses (sometimes). My family loves the Lord, they love me, and I love them, but there are times that in my mind I still go back to that day some 30 years ago, and can still hear that voice say “I’ll carry you.”

I look forward to meeting you in Heaven someday and tell you the whole story, because it really was a God thing.

Thank you Christine, for that song, from the numerous untold lives like mine, that have been changed forever by it.

God Bless You, Christine.