(On the Darkest Days) Look for the Gold Glittering
Her name was Marlene Evans and as my body rolled out of bed this morning, thoughts of her tumbled around in my head. How strange. Her name had not made an appearance in my memory for decades.
She was one of the Deans at the college I attended, and her classes were filled with students eager to glean from her insightful approach to life. Though she never had a video go viral, graced the front cover of a magazine or authored a book on a best sellers list, her presence was bigger than life. She was a passionate lover of Jesus and crazy for equipping young adults to live life to the fullest. When she walked into a room, the atmosphere would explode with joy.
Heavy news
It was my junior year when the news spread throughout the campus that Marlene had cancer. Questions began to circulate as they often do with news of this magnitude; “Why her? Why now? Will she have to step down? How will she face this crisis? Will the strength of her faith outshine the shadow of her trial?”
We held our breath, waited and watched.
The semester before the public announcement of her diagnosis I had enrolled in a small class taught by Marlene on the book of Philippians. Little did I know that this course would afford me a front-row seat to this sacred season of her life and would forever change mine.
Gratitude even then
While chemo is meant to be a killer of cancer cells, it is an unforgiving taskmaster on the rest of the body. I recall watching this once energized lady, slowly enter the classroom. Then with steady determined steps make her way to the front of the class where a podium and stool awaited her tired frame.
The brutality of cancer wasn’t anything she had to give voice to, we could see it. She had lost all her hair, her body was fragile, and nausea, well let’s just say we all knew about the “puke bucket” tucked away under the podium.
In a hushed tone, her lecture began as she dissected the passage of the day:
Rejoice in the Lord always; again, I will say, rejoice.
Philippians 4:4-7 ESV
Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand;
do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.
And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding,
will guard your hearts and your minds
in Christ Jesus.
As I sat on the edge of my seat, hanging on every word she whispered, a lump caught in my throat. She spoke confidently about God’s all-surpassing peace and our need to offer up gratitude.
Though her body was weak, her message was loud and clear. God tells us to rejoice, not in our circumstances, but in the God who sits with us in our circumstances. That is where unexplainable peace abounds.
Looking for the gold
Marlene has since gone on to see her beloved Savior. But her message continues to be a reservoir of hope that I draw from when I am caught in life’s storms.
My friends, whatever you may be facing today, may Marlene’s story be a reminder that even in our darkest days and broken parts, we can be real with God about the pain of our struggle. Then with a heart of surrender, we can rejoice and give thanks because our Father walks through the storm with us. Then wait and watch as His presence wraps us up in peace we cannot explain.
I’d like to sign off with a phrase that Marlene coined to remind her to look for God’s presence when the days grew dark. May it be a sweet reminder of hope to you today.
Look for the gold glittering.
Marlene Evans
Meet Evelyn Sheffield
Evelyn Sherwood is a trusted soul-care guide, speaker, and blogger who has served in pastoral ministry for thirty-five years. She has spoken to thousands at ministry events
and retreats and has hosted events with such speakers as Jefferson Bethke and Megan Marshman. Sherwood’s popular Stories of Hope events draw a diverse audience of hundreds from her region, and they continue to grow in popularity.
Sherwood serves an active and growing audience through her blog, evelynsherwood.com, encouraging her readers through hard times by helping them recall God’s work in their past. On a summer evening you might spot Evelyn and her husband, Steve, driving through Indiana farmlands in a canary yellow ’47 Ford pickup or enjoying an outdoor movie night with their eight grandkids.
Where to find her . . .
Begin Within is a series to inspire a year-round lifestyle of gratitude that will impact not only your own life, but the lives of your neighbors as well. Gratitude is a theme we talk about often around here because it ties so closely into other missional living rhythms. Practicing gratitude reminds to keep our hearts soft and expectant and our eyes open. Therefore, the more we embrace gratitude, the easier it becomes to truly see our neighbors and where we can join what God is already doing in our neighborhoods.
My vision for this gratitude series is to help others embrace a year-round lifestyle of gratitude that will impact not only their own life, but the lives of their neighbors as well.
If you would like to contribute to Begin Within, you can find the submission guidelines here.
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(+ 1 Simple Habit to Shift Your Direction)
If you long for deep, meaningful relationships, this is for you!
Creating Ripples
If you would like to cultivate rhythms in addition to gratitude that will empower you live on mission in your neighborhood, check out Cultivating a Missional Life: A 30-Day Devotional to Gently Help You Open Your Heart, Home, and Life to Your Neighbors. This small book will help you make a big impact in your neighborhood as you learn to let missional living flow from the inside out. Get the 30-day missional living challenge free when you purchase the book.
