There are moments in a family’s story that become landmarks—sacred mile-markers you pass and say, “There. That’s where we saw Him.”
Today was one of those moments.
Tennysen gave a short speech at school, just a few minutes long. But in it, she preached a sermon that I think the rest of us will be unpacking for years. She stood there, young and brave and clear-eyed, and gave voice to something we’ve all felt but maybe haven’t always known how to say.
She said:
“But God!”
Two simple syllables. And yet they carry the weight of hope, the defiance of despair, and the entire storyline of the gospel.
In the face of a cancer diagnosis that shook us…
In the chaos of treatment rooms and hospital charts…
In the unrelenting weariness of watching someone you love suffer…
But God.
Already, I can see God’s fingerprints on this journey with Jenn’s cancer. But I believe today—this small, significant moment in the church’s worship center.—will become one of the mile-markers we come back to. One of the “only God” moments. A testimony that He really does accomplish His work in our lives.
So I invite you to watch what we witnessed today.
And as you watch, I pray this:
That no matter what you’re facing—grief, illness, fear, exhaustion—you’ll be able to say, with trembling faith or bold confidence:
“But God.”
He is not finished. He is not absent. And He is still writing the story.
So beautiful, powerful, and bittersweet. Thank you for sharing! Continuing to pray for you—all of you—my brother.
Wow...what an amazing young woman! I could hear both you, Todd, and Jenni in the way she boldly expressed herself and how she knows her strength comes from the Lord. She is a Mighty Warrior ♥️