here if you need me

A couple weeks before I started this program, my friend Beth Anderson (co-charter member of Church at IHOP) lent me her signed copy of Kate Braestrup's book Here If You Need Me.  There couldn't have been a better time for me to read her captivating account of life as a chaplain for the Maine Warden Service.  It has focused my idea of spiritual leadership and service, and will be read again and again.

This paragraph especially grabbed me.  Kate is speaking these words to a man questioning God's love and the suicide of his sister.

"The game wardens have been walking in the rain all day, walking through the woods in the freezing rain trying to find your sister. They would have walked all day tomorrow, walked in the cold rain the rest of the week, searching for Betsy, so they could bring her home to you.  And if there is one thing I am sure of - one thing I am very, very sure of, Dan -it is that God is not less kind, less committed, or less merciful than a Maine game warden."