In April 2018, I was headed down to Orlando for a unique speaking opportunity. I was essentially serving as a chaplain/motivational speaker (all I can picture is Chris Farley on SNL) for a mission team serving at Give Kids the World. If you are unfamiliar with this place, it is quite remarkable. It is a resort specially designed for families with children who have a life-threatening or terminal illness. It’s a beautiful place, but it’s also a place of deep pain.

As I prayed through how to equip the team with what to feel and, when given the opportunity, what to say, I came back to the four truths. The challenge of making these concepts memorable and transferable was a bit daunting, but I had an idea. In our modern culture of text, we have our own version of hieroglyphics. We just call them emojis. I searched through my iPhone to find four symbols that could help communicate and remind the team of these truths. Here’s what I used.