Be Still And Wait On The Lord (From Angie)

Posted by on Aug 5, 2013 in Updates | 30 Comments

So many thoughts and emotions run through my mind simultaneously… and constantly.

The thoughts that give me hope and some sort of peace I quickly remove from my mind because of the hurt and anger and sorrow I feel. I know I’m not the only one who feels a great loss — who feels that the life they hoped for, the future they were looking forward to, was cut short. Conversations that will no longer happen; ideas, work, life that will no longer be shared; experiences that will no longer take place. To say it is a great loss feels so inadequate to describe what this really feels like.

What is life supposed to look like now? I have lost loved ones in the past. It’s hard. It’s really sad, but life continues, it goes on. This is not that, for many of us.

Honestly, I don’t know how life continues on without Will. We have been together in everything for my entire adult life. Each morning I wake up thinking, “What the hell just happened?” And I wake up hoping and praying that it didn’t. I feel like Will and I just went through a brutal, gruesome war and I came out on the other side alone, left with memories and images I don’t know what to do with and that will probably torment me for the rest of my life.

I have brief moments during the day (and hope they become more often) of being thankful for experiencing in sufferings with Christ… for sharing in the love Will and I had for the last 12 years of knowing each other and 8 years of marriage and getting to so actively serve and love him these past 10 months… for whatever this is that the Lord is doing that seems bigger than all of us.

But, the questions of why it had to be this way will never be settled in my mind. And I don’t really want them to be.

As one friend said, our community has experienced an amputation. That amputation will never be okay… not on this side of heaven. This world is messed up. It’s messed up from the greed for money, and the decisions made to that end are stealing people’s lives. It’s messed up from the food we eat and the drugs we take. It’s messed up from the lack of care for our environment and the “out for ourselves” mentality. Will was different. He sacrificed himself for the betterment of others and the world. He would literally do anything for anyone. It didn’t matter if he lost sleep or missed meals or still had 20 hours of work for the day… if you needed him he was there.

Why would God take someone like that?

So my anger stirs. Is my anger at all that is messed up in this world…? Yes. Is my anger at God… maybe. I believe He’s God and can do whatever He wants. I believe He could have kept Will from getting cancer, or made it less severe, and He could have cured him of it. I know that’s not what Will or I deserved. I don’t necessarily deserve to have my husband. He didn’t deserve to live. We never have believed we deserve anything, but that every gift is just that… a gift. But, Will wanted to live and to live to the glory of God. He didn’t feel done here. He had a lifetime worth of ideas, work, and love to give. He felt like many Christians gave up on him here and tried to rush him off to heaven. He was “ready” in a sense… in that he knew Jesus secured his eternal life. But, he also believed in living. Living until the end — until God says it’s the end, not a doctor.

So my anger, if I let it, turns to action. What would Will want me to do now, want us to do…? Because he would definitely want us to do something, to live our lives well.

I was talking with a friend after the Nashville memorial service. He told me that he had been healed — really healed — from participating in this journey. We started talking about how maybe it was all of us, Will’s community, that needed the healing we were all praying for, not him. Will was full of patience and love and trust in our Lord until his final breath.

I have a hard time thinking that healing came to me or anyone else because it feels like it was at the expense of Will’s life. But, it might be true, and I think it probably is. Even as broken as I feel, I can see healing that came to me and in the deep parts of my heart. If others have been healed, then that is encouraging and also what Will and I hoped and prayed for in all of this. That’s what he wanted with his life… to bring some sort of healing, togetherness, a light-in-the-dark-places to others.

Maybe I’m just not ready for it yet. Maybe my frustration and anger keeps me from vomiting.

Will was really good about not over-spiritualizing everything, which is a rare trait in a Christian… he just was who he was. He was a man who loved people, creating, watching movies, reading, listening to every kind of music and Jesus. He felt every emotion, he struggled with depression, and he enjoyed life. He would panic about paying rent and he would constantly plan ways to bring people together. He had fears, he had patience, he felt paralyzed by life and he persevered through it anyway. Will taught me how to just be me with all the negative and positive that comes with it. As he said many times: “I’m trusting that Jesus is going to hold on to me and you just like He said he would.”

I need God to stay close to me, but I also can’t really talk to Him right now. And, I’m okay with that. Jesus got angry and cursed a tree when he was hungry. Can I / we not be angry that a best friend has been lost? We’ve lost a mentor, a partner in creating, a son, a brother. I am now a widow at 32 years old, and not only that, but I also lost my best friend, my life partner, my other half… my love.

In a moment of panic that I was having, one of the last things Will ever said to me was, “Be still and wait on the Lord.” There’s not much you can say in response to that. I’m glad that was one of the last things he said because I’m sure I will need to hear that for the rest of my life.

5 Comments

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    September 5, 2017

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  2. Will and Angie Gray [Video] - Finding Justice
    August 25, 2013

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  3. Beth
    August 11, 2013

    So sorry Angie, I can’t imagine what you are going through. My heart breaks too, for you, with you. I too was praying for healing because I know Will had so much more to share with the world. Maybe it was selfish of me to want him to stay rather then him enjoying eternal peace too soon, selfish to want to keep him here with us because we don’t know the depths of his hurting. I wake up and the lyrics of the song Do You Remember haunt me and comfort me. It may sound weird, but I feel him encouraging me to write, be creative, live life to the fullest, he is an angel watching over us. I will be forever grateful for getting to know Will at the CMC in ’02 and I am so proud of all he accomplished in his short life. His determination and spirit will forever encourage me. I pray that you will find peace and comfort in the memories that you shared.
    When the phone calls cease and the cards stop coming in the mail, and you feel all alone, may you remember all the lives that were touched by your husband and be comforted. You were blessed to have known him better than anyone, love him deeper and that is why the hurt is so great, because there was so much love, a memory remembered for every tear shed. Let it out, tears=love. Know that Will is still with you, watching over you and you are still loved, still a child of God, and He cares for you. You were the best help mate and wife, a great example to me and others of how to be a woman of strength, but you don’t have to be strong now, rest in the Lord and let Him carry you. God bless you.

    Reply
  4. Mary
    August 10, 2013

    Angie, I know that you are hurting right now and very angry with all that has happened; but I know that our God does not make mistakes. I believe that he is just and righteous. Will accomplished more than any of us know, he touched lives , he brought people together and closer. He accomplished more in his 33 years for the Lord than most Christians (people) will in their lifetime. God has not failed you and he did not fail William. Jesus was William’s age when God called him home and we know that there was more that Jesus could have done here on earth. Be angry, ask questions, scream, but hold tight to your faith in God. He already knows your thoughts and words before you speak them. In healing Will, he has healed you; now you must go out and teach the gospel the way Will would; travel to Africa help the children there. Stay in the states, but do God’s will because that is what your beloved husband would want you to do. Take time to mourn, but do not slumber long for there is much for you to do. I love you and I am praying for you. God has given you the gift to care for and heal those in need. Lift the Savior up.

    Reply
  5. Danielle
    August 9, 2013

    Thank you for your raw honesty Angie. I have never met you and yet a day does not go by that I don’t think of you and the unthinkable journey that you have been on this past year. My hope is that the pain of Will’s loss will be replaced by the joy of his memories and that you will feel his spirit alongside you every day. There is no way to circumvent the grief process and all of the feelings of anger and sadness and tremendous loss but after the rain, the rainbow does come out. I pray in time, the pain will subside. I think your story is not yet over, that Will’s legacy will live on, and that your life will continue and flourish in ways you don’t even know. May you feel the overflowing love of the many, many lives you and Will have touched.

    Reply

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