Pastor John Ortberg tells the story of a woman who had been diagnosed with cancer and had three months to live.  So, she started to make preparations for the end of her life.  She contacted the pastor of her church and told him how she wanted things arranged for her funeral service. She decided she was going to lay out the whole thing. She told him what songs she wanted to have sung, what Scriptures she wanted to have read, what she wanted to have said, that she wanted to be buried with her favorite Bible. 

Then she said to him, “There's just one more thing.” And he asked her what it was. She said, “This is important, so pay attention to this. I want to be buried with a fork in my right hand.” The pastor didn’t know what to say; he’d never had that request before. He asked her why.  She explained, “In all my years in going to church functions, whenever food was involved my favorite part came when whoever was cleaning the dishes off the table of the main course would lean over to me and say,  '"You can keep your fork." It was my favorite part because I knew it meant something great was coming. It wasn’t Jell-O, it was something with substance—cake or pie, biblical food. So I just want people to see me there in my casket, with a fork in my hand after I’m gone, and I want them to wonder, What’s with the fork?  And then I want you to tell them, "Something better is coming."

This week, we'll continue in our series through Romans entitled Live By Faith by listening to Paul tell us to keep our fork.  Romans 8:18-30 is a foundational passage of Scripture for any Christian who is experiencing the suffering that comes from walking through this world. Because of the Holy Spirit's work in us, our perspective on the pain and struggle of our lives can change. I hope you'll join us as we try to make sense of our suffering together.