How Big Is Your Umbrella: Weathering the Storms of Life (Second Edition)

By Sheila Wray Gregoire

How Big Is Your Umbrella? helps those who have lost–lost children, lost jobs, lost marriages, lost dreams, even lost hope–have it out with God, and emerge, whole, on the other side.

Growing out of the pain the author felt when she lost her son, and drawing from others’ stories of loss, this small, easy-to-read book takes readers through a journey of conversation with God. The book walks through the things we yell at God when life is tough, and the things that God whispers back in the midst of our pain.

You will find that answers do not always come, but in the end it is not the answers that matter nearly as much as the relationship. And after all, most of us would rather be outside in the rain huddling beside one who loves us and is protecting us, rather than outside in the rain with all the comprehension in the world, but still feeling utterly alone.

God is like that. He is our shelter, not our encyclopedia. And when we hurt, that’s really what we’re looking for.

A perfect gift for those who are struggling, questioning, or crying, How Big is Your Umbrella is an unintimidating entrance into the heart of our storms, and a map for emerging safely and securely on the other side.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Sheila Wray Gregoire
• Release date: Aug 6, 2014
• ISBN: 9781311380739

Sheila Wray Gregoire

Sheila Wray Gregoire has become “the Christian sex lady” as she talks sex all day, all the time on her Bare Marriage podcast and BareMarriage.com blog, the largest single-blogger marriage blog on the internet. She's also an award-winning author of nine books and a sought-after speaker who loves encouraging couples to go beyond Christian pat answers to find real-life solutions. And she knits. Even in line at the grocery store.

Book preview

How Big Is Your

Umbrella?

Weathering the Storms of Life

by

Sheila Wray Gregoire

How Big Is Your Umbrella?

Second Edition

by Sheila Wray Gregoire

Copyright 2013 Sheila Wray Gregoire

Smashwords Edition

The right of Sheila Wray Gregoire to be identified as author of this Work has been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in retrieval system, copied in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise transmitted without written permission from the publisher. You must not circulate this book in any format.

This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be resold or given away to others. If you would like to share this book with others in your group, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Find out more about the author and upcoming books online at www.sheilawraygregoire.com, http://facebook.com/Sheila.gregoire.books

or @sheilagregoire

Contents

Introduction

1 . We Cry: What Did I Do to Deserve This?

2 . We Cry: Why Does God Let Me Suffer?

3 . We Cry: Don’t You Want Me to Be Happy?

4. God Whispers: Am I Enough?

5 .God Whispers: "Do You Remember That You Are Dust?

6. God Whispers: Can I Carry You?

7. God Whispers: This Life is Not All There Is

For Reflection

About the Author

Sheila Speaks

Introduction

I often wish life were more like a fairy tale—we may spend a few days battling dragons or evil stepmothers or wicked kings, but our happily ever after is just around the corner. And we expect the happily ever after. We deserve the happily ever after. So why doesn’t God give it to us?

Jesus told us a story two thousand years ago about two men who wanted to settle down. One man focused on prime waterfront real estate and built his house on the beach, dreaming of an idyllic life of fishing and swimming. Another man, eyeing the incoming tide, moved inland and built his house anchored on rock. Soon a storm hit, and as the wind and the rain battered the houses, only one stood firm.

Storms come to everyone—that’s the way life works. The only difference is in our preparation. We build our house securely by making God the foundation of our lives. No matter what happens, we do not bend or break or collapse because God holds us. When we look to Him despite the circumstances, the storms lose their power.

Yet turning to God is not always easy. Sometimes storms wail against us so strongly that standing through them isn’t possible. We are knocked down and need help getting back up when the waves are crashing over us.

I think that during those awful times, God desperately wants to come to our rescue. He’s standing out in the storm with us, reaching out His hand. But will we take it? Sometimes we’re hesitant, because we don’t understand the storm. Did God cause it? Why isn’t it going away? What does He want from us? The questions beat us down almost as much as the wind and the rain, and we feel hopeless, powerless, and, all too often, alone.

Throughout my life I, like you, have faced a myriad of storms. As I recount my story here, and weave in those of others, I hope to show you that there is indeed hope. If you are worn down and you can’t get up, there is no pit you can dig where God cannot still reach you and pull you up. If you have lost your passion for life and the world seems gray, it can burst with color again. Don’t despair. God is with us, and a rainbow awaits.

1

We Cry:

What Did I Do to Deserve This?

When storms come, frequently our first reaction is to lash out at God. Why me? Why don’t You do something? Why are You letting this happen?

Throughout recorded history, when people have walked through really tough times, they have taken it up with their Maker. The prophet Jeremiah, seeing the slaughter of his people, yelled at God, Why does the way of the wicked prosper? (Jer. 12:1). In his psalms, King David lamented and even raged about the injustices all around him and what he had to endure. Both David and Jeremiah eventually did make peace with their questions and with God, but the wailing came first.

I have done my own share of wailing at God over loss, rejections,

and hurts. The deepest occurred when I was twenty-six and pregnant with my second child. The day after my sonogram, everything seemed to move in slow motion after the phone rang and the doctor said, You’d better come in, because there’s something wrong with his heart.

Over the next few weeks, as I had every test imaginable, my husband and I learned that our son had Down syndrome and a serious heart defect that would require a series of surgeries. These operations, however, would only prolong his death, not save his life. The doctors couldn’t be certain when he would leave us, but they did believe that he would deteriorate, grow very short of breath, and suffer until he finally died, whether it be as a baby, a toddler, or a twenty- year-old.

I felt like a shadow of my former self as I walked through the last half of my pregnancy in trepidation and cold, brutal terror. When Christopher arrived on August 6, 1996, it was such a relief to finally see him. He was no longer an abstract medical problem, but a tiny bundle who breathed a little too fast, and who stared directly into my eyes as if he knew who I was.

His first two weeks were peaceful ones, as he was healthier than we expected him to be. We were praying that he could avoid surgery, and that he might even improve on his own, but God did not answer that prayer as we would have liked. As his heart began to