Learning to Wait

There is nothing as exciting as serving Jesus Christ.  It is the hardest thing I have ever done, but it is by far the best thing.  It is not me who has done anything, but Christ in me.  One of my favorite verses concerning service is found in Luke 17:9-10:  "Does he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I think not. [10] So likewise you, when you have done all those things which you are commanded, say, 'We are unprofitable servants. We have done what was our duty to do."  I can say the first part, but my duties stretch out before me for the unforeseeable future.  There is nothing more untamed and wild than the path of faith.  It makes the biggest roller coasters in the world seem as childish as a carousel.  Crazier than trying to stay on a bull for 8 seconds, following Jesus Christ is a lifetime of voluntary slave labor.  At the same time, there's nothing crazy about trusting in Jesus as Savior.  I could spend an eternity telling you the reasons why being a born-again Christian is totally worth it!

Lately my family and I have been on a wild ride of faith, with the slow ascent and breathtaking drops, experiencing twists and turns, and looking at each other at the end and saying, "Let's do that again!"  I remember when Laura and I took Zed on "California Screaming" at Disneyland a few years back.  Halfway through the ride I looked over my shoulder to see Zed yelling with his eyes closed, "I don't like it!  I don't like it!"  I'm not sure he has quite recovered!  To be honest, there have been parts of this ride I haven't liked.  To be more specific, the walk of faith takes us way beyond our comfort zones.  I like to plan.  I prefer to be prepared.  Just like nothing can prepare you for the realities of marriage or having kids until you have personal experience, our flesh can never be prepared for a walk of faith in Christ.  We must be empowered by the Holy Spirit to bring our bodies, minds, and hearts into submission to God.  One can be mentally prepared to obey, but actual obedience is a new frontier every time.

In the last two weeks, our house has been sold twice.  The first buyers experienced "cold feet" days into escrow and decided they would pass on purchasing the house.  We determined the property could be improved by some minor cosmetic fixes.  Our agent suggested we pull the house off the listing, perform the repairs, then re-list it in a month's time to have a new listing again.  We were resigned to the fact the house might not sell as quick as we hoped.  But while the house was being withdrawn from the market, several buyers expressed interest.  An offer was immediately submitted at a price higher than the range we were asking!  Laura and I signed the agreement yesterday and today we are back in escrow.  Funny how things change.  We are not counting our chickens just yet, seeing as the eggs are newly laid.

A hitter in baseball must always be ready for the "off-speed" pitch.  A hard thing to develop is patience at the plate:  not only must a batter be selective, but wait on that curve or change-up and hit it to the opposite field.  God is teaching us patience right now through our circumstances.  Paul said in Philip. 4:11:  "Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content..."  Contentment is not a natural virtue which all possess.  It is learned.  Patience is taught to those who will abide in Christ.  Remember, "Love is patient, love is kind..."  This kind of patience on the path of faith springs only from the natural source:  God.  Whenever God sees us "sitting on a pitch" (for you non-baseball players, this means you are expecting a certain pitch at a certain time in a certain place), I guarantee He'll throw something your way to keep you off-balance.  It is only then we recognize and confess we have been telling God what to do, rather than responding to His Word and leading.

Are you content in your current situation?  This is a loaded question!  We must be content with the things God has given us and with the calling upon our lives.  But we never should be content with our level of maturity, service, faith, or love.  We all have room to grow as we pursue Christ.  Let us wait upon Him as we faithfully glorify Him until our days upon this earth are completed.  Then we can say, "I am an unprofitable servant.  I have only done what was my duty to do."  Praise God He brings profit from debt!

Blessings Limit

When I was a kid, my folks would sometimes take the family to Lake Cuyamaca as a special outing.  We had many memorable experiences on the water, like me dropping the brand-new net overboard and watching it slowly float out of sight (and then seeing the expression on my dad's face!), my mom catching all the fish and laughing hysterically, and the time it was so freezing cold we left after an hour to warm up over breakfast in Julian.  Our chief goal as a family was to "catch our limit."  At Lake Cuyamaca, each person has a limit of five trout.  With five people in our family, we could catch 25 trout!  I don't know that we ever managed that number, but on one occasion we were very close (thanks to Mom - she was unstoppable that day!).

Tonight after dinner I read a passage from 1 Chronicles 26 and we have been nightly wading through lists of names and positions of service.  Every night the LORD has shown us new things as we read, even in the genealogies.  I read something I hadn't noticed before:  1 Chron. 26:4-6 says, "Moreover the sons of Obed-Edom were Shemaiah the firstborn, Jehozabad the second, Joah the third, Sacar the fourth, Nethanel the fifth, [5] Ammiel the sixth, Issachar the seventh, Peulthai the eighth; for God blessed him."  Obed-Edom didn't have the most kids of anyone in the Bible, but the passage clearly states he had these children because "God blessed him."  My dad hails from a family with eight kids.  Whether you have 18 kids or are without children altogether, God has blessed you in more ways than can be counted.  Obed-Edom was blessed by God, and giving him children was a way God expressed this in his life.

As I read this, my mind went suddenly to a common practice of many people today who are medically sterilized so they will no longer be able to make babies.  Now understand, I am not making a case against this practice or do I condemn it in any way.  If you know me at all, you know how my mind works in that I see a physical thing and consider the spiritual application.  For the sake of consideration, let's say God desires to bless me with eight kids and after three I decide I've had enough.  Would I be limiting the blessings of God?  Regardless, this will always remain a hypothetical question.  Now for the real question:  CAN I limit the blessings of God in my life?  I can say with certainty:  absolutely.

God desires to bless His people with wisdom, knowledge, forgiveness, victory, and peace through Jesus Christ.  I can choose to walk according to my own wisdom.  I can choose to refuse to forgive others and deny myself forgiveness from God.  I can choose to walk in sin and forfeit the victory which is my birthright as a child of God.  I can choose to allow worry and doubt to rule my decisions and reject the peace which God has offered me.  How sad it would be to receive three gifts from God when He has eight in store!  The truth is God has an infinite amount of temporal and eternal blessings already granted to all who walk this earth.

Let us decide today that we will not place a blessings limit on God.  God grants us blessings that we might glorify Him.  The more we receive the more capacity we have to give.  Let's receive the limit God would have for us!  No one limits out sitting on the couch.  If Jesus could use five loaves and two fish to feed over five thousand men, their wives, and children, He can use what little we possess - after it is handed over to Him - to do miraculous things for His praise, glory, and honor.  Psalm 37:4 says, "Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart."  That is a promise and a blessing!

A Legacy of Love

I received word this morning my dear Aunt Lynn passed into eternity today at 3:32am.  This came as no surprise to family and friends, but no amount of preparation diffuses the reality separation that death brings.  For most of my lifetime Lynn has suffered from rheumatoid arthritis, emphysema, diabetes, and a variety of other ailments.  But through all the hardship and struggle I cannot remember a single time she complained.  Love and selflessness are Aunt Lynn's legacy, a shining example for our family to cherish and honor.  For the last two weeks we had been prepared by doctors she did not have long to live.  Every day she talked, smiled, and laughed among us was a tremendous gift.

Last Friday I was driving home and I received a call from my mom.  She said, "If you want to see Aunt Lynn, now would be the time."  I continued to her house and met with a group of friends and family who gathered to give her comfort, company, and return a little bit of the love she had freely given to us.  I arrived to see what would be the last couple of hours Aunt Lynn remained conscious and responsive, a true gift from God.  What I experienced and observed at her bedside was something I will never forget.

If you know Aunt Lynn, you would know she has a great-grandson Zac because she talks about him all the time.  Zac is beyond precious to her, so dear to her you might think he was her only child.  "He's really what keeps me going," she shared with me at the family Thanksgiving celebration this year.  I arrived at the moment six-year-old Zac would be seeing his dear granny for the last time.  It was one of the most sorrowful and heart-wrenching things I have ever seen.  As he approached her bedside, she lit up with a radiant smile and was overjoyed.  But even in his youth he could not escape the finality of the moment, understanding that granny's sickness was beyond the care of medicine or treatment.  Tears welled up in his eyes and his face turned red, not sure what to do or say.  Aunt Lynn, seeing his tears began to cry as well, reaching out to him.  "It's just so sad," the boy managed to choke out.  Everyone in the room was seeing through tears. 

My mind drifted to the words of Juliet:  "...Parting is such sweet sorrow."  There was little sweetness in that sorrow.  There was much sweetness between the love of child and great-granny, not to be undone by death.  Zac was quickly whisked away and the hospice nurse helped Lynn with additional oxygen.  The emotion that welled up inside left her unable to breathe.  Within a couple of hours Lynn was asleep and would never again regain consciousness.  Because of Jesus Christ and her trust in Him, Lynn will never see spiritual death.  Though her body lost the battle to illness, her soul has gained the victory.  She can say with the saints gone before her:   "So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: "Death is swallowed up in victory." [55] "O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory?" [56] The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. [57] But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." (1 Cor. 15:54-57)

What occurred to me after that sad moment of parting between Aunt Lynn and Zac is a follower of Jesus Christ will never be separated from God the Father even in physical death.  There will be no heart-breaking bedside parting between God and His children.  Jesus is going to prepare a place for us so where He is we may be there also.  He will never leave us or forsake us.  Death may separate us from loved ones on earth, but nothing shall separate us from the love of God found in Christ Jesus.  My Aunt Lynn has left our family a legacy of love which I will never forget, and Jesus has revealed His love for all by His death on the cross.  When I was still a sinner, He died for me.  It is Him that I find hope in the face of sorrow.  How good it is to know you have been loved, and how much greater to know you are loved still!

A Wound to Remember

This morning I had intended to post on a completely different subject (which I will soon), but was derailed during my Bible reading this morning.  I was reading over the passage in Genesis 32 when Jacob wrestles with a man until daybreak.  This man is pre-incarnate Christ, who speaks and acts with the authority of God.  Genesis 32:25 says, "Now when He saw that He did not prevail against him, He touched the socket of his hip; and the socket of Jacob's hip was out of joint as He wrestled with him."  My typical morning starts with prayer and reading a chapter of the Bible, focusing on a verse or theme.  The following is my first meditations on this verse which I write in a notebook:

When a man wrestles with God, he will be forever altered.  From that day forward, Jacob walked with a limp.  But with the limp came a blessing and promise.  His name was changed from Jacob to Israel, from "supplanter" to "God strives."  There is no wound sweeter or more cherished than when God does the wounding.  A man having survived a fierce gun fight will gladly show the scars from the bullets which passed through him; a war veteran recounts a battle where shrapnel tore through his leg and neck with enthusiasm to his wide-eyed grandchildren.  But a man who has been wounded by God can scarce describe the event with words when he was broken.  Though he may show no physical scar, his soul will never be the same.

God is the Good Shepherd who wounds His own sheep when it is good for them, and will never destroy His own.  Jacob's limp was a testimony of God's grace, love, and unshakable promises.  When the finger of God touches us we tread upon holy ground.  From that day forward out of reverence for God and His promise towards Israel and his children, the Israelites did not eat the sinew that shrank.  Genesis 32:32 says, "Therefore to this day the children of Israel do not eat the muscle that shrank, which is on the hip socket, because He touched the socket of Jacob's hip in the muscle that shrank."  Jacob hobbled on his lame leg for the rest of his life.

To unbelievers, the touch of God seems a curse, not a blessing.  Yet to those who know God and have been touched, they would never trade that wound for all the earthly riches of kings.  Jesus too was wounded, wounded at the hands of man by the will of God.  He showed His scars to the disciples and that is how they recognized Him.  You know a man by his wounds:  they distinguish him.  They identify him truer than a rectangular of plastic with his name stamped in embossed letters complete with hologram that he carries in a wallet.  Many people can have brown hair or blue eyes, but to have a particular scar in a certain area is living proof.

God knows us just the same, having put His name upon us.  He knows our afflictions, prayers, loves, and desires.  As a cattle rancher brands his cows, God marks His men.  He knows them and they follow Him.  "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow Me," Jesus says.  Thomas looked upon the wounds of Jesus and said, "My Lord and my God."  When God looked upon our wounds He says, "My beloved!  I am yours and you are Mine!"  Wrestle with the LORD, and refuse to let go except He bless you.  And after He has blessed you, cling closer still.