The more I’m around the folks from CORNERSTONE OF HOPE here in Independence, the more I respect and appreciate this organization and what they represent. I’ve wanted the congregation at ROCKSIDE CHURCH to become acquainted with this organization, and vice versa, for some time now and it finally happened last Sunday! Author Henri Nouwen talks about the choice each of must make regarding what we do with PAIN in our lives. Will we take our pain under the curse of satan or under the BLESSINGS OF GOD? When Christi and Mark Tripodi (pictured here) lost their little boy sudden, they had a choice to make. They could have permitted their grief to envelop them. Many marriages do not even survive the death of a child. Instead, they took their pain under the BLESSINGS OF GOD and founded CORNERSTONE OF HOPE that is now a place of healing and restoration for others in the pain of grief. This past Sunday, Cornerstone of Hope’s spiritual director, Matt Williams, along with Bre and Megan, two interns, came to share at Rockside Church. I love this practical, entrepreneurial, local example of a Biblical theology of pain … and I love it when my friends meet my other friends!