humbled

Four years ago, a man named Ian Murphy was in a car accident. He suffered a traumatic brain injury and was in a coma for a substantial period of time. During the last four years, his family, his church and his girlfriend stood by his side, constantly keeping him in prayer and supporting him.

They never lost their faith and they never lost hope.

And they never stopped praising God.

It's crazy isn't it? When earthquakes happen, when random terrible things happen, usually the first thing people do is start blaming God.But not these people.

They have a faith in God's sovereignty, His eternal plan that is amazing and humbling.

Ian married his girlfriend Larissa this year. In the last four years, they have done more to display the self sacrificial love of Christ than I ever thought was humanly possible. It's so crazy and beautiful all at the same time and I'm so glad they decided to share their story online. Their blog is here. The main authors of the blog used to be Ian's father, Steve and Larissa. But last year, Steve passed away of cancer so it's mainly Larissa blogging now.

Larissa wrote this -

"Our every hope for marriage rests on what Christ has done. We are both entering this marriage with extreme weaknesses, difficulties and challenges that most marriages never experience. But we have hope. We have hope because the gospel affects everything about our lives. And we have everything we need for life and godliness through Christ. Our affection for each other and therefore our marriage cannot thrive outside of the gospel. So we are hoping and trying to enter into this knowing that we stand on nothing else other than Christ. We are so weak but we have a great God, who works way beyond what we can understand."


I went through a discontented funk in the last couple of days and felt so .. aggrieved about some stuff. But reading this made me realize - this is what the christian faith is about. That even in the midst of grief, you rejoice in the Lord and give thanks for His compassion and love. That it has been given to you to know Him and be adopted as sons. That you really and truly have been given new hearts that seek to obey and glorify Him.

So I'm writing this down as a reminder to myself. There is so much in my life to be thankful for - so much that I don't deserve. There is also such a long way to go in my walk with Christ, so much growing in humbleness, love, repentance and joy. But like them, my hope for salvation rests in Christ and the gospel.