"Father... We Are in Your Hands"

On Tuesday evening our son, Andrew, had emergency surgery for a problem with his colon. The name of the condition is intussusception and it involves the telescoping of one portion of his colon into an adjacent portion. In essence this condition causes the bowel to be squeezed closed and blood flow to be cut off to the effected portion, causing that part to die.
Andrew had to have that dead section removed. All went well, but now he faces a pretty tough recovery. He must wear a colostomy bag for around six weeks (a difficult thing for a 21 year old guy) and learn to take care of it himself. Right now, he is also feeling nauseous and everything he eats tastes like "metal" (his surgeon said that possibly both of these experiences are from the antibiotics). And... because his condition will require a pretty extensive recuperation time, he will probably not be able to continue his college classes this term... setting him back... just as he was beginning to see some light at the end of the tunnel acedemically.
It's not coincidental (but truly Providential, I think) that I picked up a certain C.S. Lewis book to read while sitting by Andrew's bedside in the hospital. The book is, "Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer", and in one of these letters Lewis addresses the problem of unanswered prayer. Paraphrasing he says that we should not find it scandalous that our prayers are not always answered in the affirmative. If the Son of Man heard the Father say, "No", to his prayer in Gethsemane ("Father... if it is possible that this cup pass from me...") then why do we think that He will always say, Yes", to us?
Does the Father love us more than He loved Him? Do we love the Father more than Jesus did? Is our walk with the Father closer than Jesus' walk with Him? Are we holier than the Holy Son of God? Truly "the servant is not greater than the Master".
And yet... God does sometimes answer with a, "Yes". Isn't that amazing? In all this the most wonderful, "Yes", came to these requests... "Father, please help the doctors determine the cause and treatment for Andrew's condition, please keep him safe during this process and make him well, again." We are incredibly thankful for the Father's love and care for our son... and for the love and care that He will continue to show him throughout this recuperative process (even during those instances when He answers, "No").
And, we will continue to pray because while we may not know how the Lord will answer every time, we do know Him. We know that He is loving and He is good... and all his ways flow from who He is. We will pray for Andrew's continued physical recuperation (that it will continue to progress uneventfully... without infection, etal), we will pray that he will be able to learn all the new skills that he must learn (like dealing with his colostomy), we will pray for his emotional response to all this trauma (for quiet and peace in the midst of a slow process), we will pray for his spirit, that he will one day see that the Father's, "No", was the best answer that he could have received. But mostly, because in the end He is in fact good and loving, our prayer will continue to be, "Father, we are all in your hands...".

Plank-Eyed Judges

I'm not even sure what they were talking about. I think I heard something about ,"people who were 'afraid' to challenge the claims of the Bible."

We were in a little bookstore in Great Barrington (a particularly "liberalish" little town in south western Massachusetts) that I overheard this young couple in conversation. Try as I might I couldn't quite "overhear" exactly what they were saying (darned 52 year old ears...) but this phrase I did hear, "Well... you'd have to be either mentally unstable or just brainwashed."

How did I respond (in my head, anyway)? "Man... these liberal (aka 'open-minded') folk can really be incredibly judgemental of those of us who are not quite so 'open-minded'." (Ironic, ain't it?) But, the irony went on... because right on the heels of that reaction came a new response... this time from the Spirit of God. I heard, "Don't you do that very same thing? Don't you readily and quickly draw conclusions (make judgements) about others... their beliefs and actions?"

And it's true... without really knowing anything about someone (and without having one whit of authority to do so) I become the great diagnostician of their "condition" (their guilt... error... mental instability... level of brain-washedness...)

Maybe I should try to 'overhear' Jesus a little more... something about, "taking the plank out of your own eye so that you can see clearly to remove the speck out of theirs".

Hear... and Remember

So... our morning study at Oceanwood this year was entitled, "Into the Desert", and it was a study of the experience and significance of our spiritual desert experiences. The heart of the study was this, "Jesus, filled with the Spirit was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil." Jesus was led... and He obeyed. And the devil met him there, with a strategy to lead him away from what the Father had called him do (to become the Savior of the world and the Creator of a new Creation). And, the devil's strategy? Tempt Jesus to reject who He was and so cause him to reject what he was called to do.

"If you are the Son of God..."

The tempter challenged Jesus love relationship with his Father and I am convinced that our temptations come from that place as well. Can you hear the tempter's voice begin to whisper to you, "If you are a son of God... a daughter of God..."? ("Well, really how do you know... isn't that kinda presumptuous? Better not presume upon his love and relationship with you. ").

How did Jesus fend off these attacks? Jesus treasured in his heart a word from his Father and held onto this deep truth. Truly,"man does not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God...", and this word from the Father to his Son became the Bread of Life for him... and for us. What was that word?

"You are my Son... whom I love... with you I am so very happy."

Jesus was able to fend off the devil's strategies because he know something... he knew his Father's voice and his words of love and favor. Consequently, Jesus knew that the devil's "if"s were empty. And so with each one of us... in the face of the devil's "if"s... hear the Father say, "You (place your name here) are my child and I love you. I am so very happy with you."

Hear... and remember.