I have been traveling in a remote part of Canada with no access to the Worldwide Web. Last night when I finally returned to civilization and arrived at my hotel I was going to write Words for the Day but couldn’t think of a subject. This is very unusual and I even mentioned it to my wife. After mulling it over and grumbling about it a little I decided to check out my e-mail instead, and I abruptly discovered the reason for drawing a blank.
One of my good friends had sent me some news that was wonderful, but also some that was very disconcerting. The good news was that he had just been blessed with his first grandchild and he sent me so many pictures of the little buggar that I’m surprised that my e-mail account didn’t reject the enormous amount of data required to send them.
The bad news was that his wife received some results from a test that are life threatening. He mentioned that I had recently received similar results concerning the spot found on my lungs and yet I seemed unfazed by it. Theirs is a Godly family and they love Christ with all of their hearts. She has taken the news in stride, but he is worried. He wanted me to tell him how I had maintained such unswerving faith when facing my own black storm so he could shore up his own faith.
Hmmm… I see now why the Lord wouldn’t let me write about another subject for today’s WFTD.
First I think that it is no coincidence that he experienced the marvelous joy of the birth of his first grandchild at this time. According to the Bible there is a time to be born and a time to die that has been established by God. It is God’s divine design. We have to understand that God did not create us to live in this world forever. He wants us to be with Him – throughout eternity – in heaven where He has prepared a place for us that is so wonderful that mere words cannot describe it.
We should look forward to the day that we and the ones that we love enter heaven with great anticipation and not love this life so much that we don’t want to ever leave it. Remember Lot’s wife turned to a block of salt because she looked back on Sodom and Gomorrah after being warned not to do so. The lesson here is we should love God and not this world, and look forward to Him always.
With that said, the loss of someone’s mate is a terrible thing. My wife and I both hope and pray that we either go together, or die first, because we want to escape the pain of separation from each other. Jesus said it is a sin to worry, but I think it is only natural to be concerned about either leaving a spouse alone, or being left alone. The insurance guys have it down to casino-accuracy and the odds are that the husband “kicks” before the wife. Perhaps that is good news for me. From a selfish standpoint I look forward to going to heaven with great anticipation. I literally cannot wait to meet Jesus Christ and be able to ask Him a million questions and to begin exploration of heaven to include being reunited with my mother, brother, mother-in-law and a myriad of others who have gone on before me.
On the other hand I don’t want to miss out on even one opportunity to witness to others while there is yet time, nor do I want my wife or family to spend any time grieving over me, or to cause them any sorrow whatsoever.
What to do?
I want to take full advantage of every moment of every day spending my time spreading the good news of Jesus Christ and spending time with loved ones. Note: That does not leave any time for “fussing and fighting my friends”. To get through this period, we should enjoy the moments afforded to us, because there are no guarantees for any of us of how long they will last.
Enduring the death of loved ones is painful, but it does draw us closer to our God. A friend recently abandoned a seven year project that was very dear to her heart in order to be with a friend through a long battle with chemo, and then hospice, and then saying bon voyage. When I asked her about her important abandoned project, she said with a wistful smile that perchance it wasn’t that important after all. Could it be that the purpose of God peeked through the black storm clouds for a moment? I think so. It’s difficult; it’s a paradox; but I have no doubt that my friend benefitted enormously from the months of grief filled pain as she bid adieu to her good friend.
According to the Bible faith comes from hearing the word of God. We can hear it by reading the Bible, attending church and Sunday school, and fellowship with other Christians as we are doing right now. Faith to me is really putting God first and recognizing that all things work out for the good to those of us who love the Lord. Yes even death works out for the good and we all must cross that bridge in order to find its permanence. In the end we should pray, but when we do so we should pray for God’s will to be done, (whatever that might be) so His goodness can shine into our dim lives.
C.S. Lewis once cautioned concerning faith: “We must not encourage in ourselves or others any tendency to work up a subjective state which, if we succeeded, we should describe as “faith”, with the idea that this will somehow insure the granting of our prayer…. The state of mind which desperate desire working on a strong imagination can manufacture is not faith in the Christian sense. It is a feat of psychological gymnastics.”
I am praying for this family and I ask you to do likewise. I pray that the Lord’s will be done, but in His infinite wisdom He will allow this fine Christian woman who does so much good for others in this life to continue her work for many years to come. I ask God to ease my friend’s mind and to give him His faith and through it the peace that surpasses all human understanding. Dear God we realize that You created us for Your purpose and we ask that You help us to accept the hard times with the good. We realize that every heartbeat of every minute of every day sits within Your hand and You are always with us even to the end of the earth.
Amen…
Rom 10:17
Faith comes by hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.