Monthly Archives: July 2011

Can we fail?

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This week my friend got some shocking news. Cancer has invaded several of her major organs, and short of God’s intervention, her prognosis is terminal.

Thankfully she’s a Christian and believes wholeheartedly that either way, live or die, cancer or healing, her faith in God will carry her through. And I hope it will.

Today I prayed for her out of Psalm 27: “The Lord is my light… I will fear no one… I will not be afraid… I will trust God… marvel at his goodness… ask for his guidance… triumph over my enemies… sing and praise Him.” I prayed these things would be true for her as the future unfolds and that her trust in God won’t weaken.

Apparently there’s a chance Christians can lose their faith. I don’t mean lose salvation, just their hope in the Lord. After a terminal cancer diagnosis, it’s easy to become downcast, weak or defeated. If that weren’t a possibility, Jesus himself wouldn’t have demonstrated how to pray against it.

In Luke 22, we see him detailing last minute instructions to his dearest friends, the 12 disciples. They’ve finished sharing the Passover meal and within minutes Jesus will leave the room and walk to Gethsemane where he’ll begin suffering intensely for you, for me, and for these 12.

His time on earth is running out, and surely there’s urgency in his voice, no doubt making the men uncomfortable. He tells them that shortly a friend will betray him, after which he’ll be intensely tortured, then forced to sacrifice his own body and blood.

Certainly the men, sitting in the glow of gentle lamp light with full bellies, don’t want to hear this. They quickly change the subject, but Jesus, possibly on the edge of irritation, needs their full attention and does his own subject-changing. “Satan has asked to sift each of you like wheat.” (v. 31, NLT)

And suddenly they’re hanging on his every word thinking, “You mean our names came up in a conversation between you and Satan?” This would alarm any of us. But it’s Jesus’ next statement that should have concerned them most. “I have pleaded in prayer for you, Simon, that your faith should not fail.”

We learn by following the story that despite Jesus having already prayed for Peter, he does fail, causing heartache for Jesus and anguish for Peter. How many of the others failed, too? How many lost hope in Jesus and behaved accordingly?  How many of us? What about my friend?

To know Jesus is praying strong faith into us today increases our determination to hang onto him tighter, no matter what’s going on around us… even if it’s terminal cancer.

I’m going to pray for my friend the same way Jesus prayed for his, that her faith won’t fail, from now until the very end.

“Teach me, Lord, what you want me to do, and lead me along a safe path. I know that I will live to see the Lord’s goodness in this present life.” (Psalm 27:11,13)

Joining the SCAC

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At 12:55 this afternoon, Jack and I joined the “Society of the Centrally Air Conditioned” (SCAC). When that first puff of cold air came floating through our 72 year old registers, the two of us, poised to feel it, rejoiced. By 5:00 our hot cottage had been given new life at 76 degrees, and the condensation on my windows had moved from inside to outside. Amazing.

Nate and I enjoyed air conditioning in our Illinois home and eventually took it for granted. But this year the combination of no AC and a high-temp Michigan summer put AC status at “dearly desired.”

During this year’s first cluster of 90 degree days, I took a poll of how many homes in our neighborhood were in the SCAC and how many weren’t. While walking Jack, I counted the houses with closed windows (cool inside) and open (hot inside), learning that 80% of my neighbors were already in the club.

This morning, pre-AC, as I put on clean clothes that already felt wet, a rush of anticipation helped me recognize that cool air on a hot day is a precious commodity never to be taken for granted.

How many other precious commodities am I currently taking for granted? Remembering back to when Nate was still with me, I under-appreciated far too many things about him and our marriage. Just today I thought of something quite special about him that I took for granted at the time.

When I asked him to do something for me, such as buy the ink replacement for my printer (an unusual cartridge, hard to find but available in the Loop) he’d always come home with my request completed. Sometimes I’d forget I’d even asked, but he never forgot to get it done. One day I said, “How do you always remember to do those things?”

He said, “Simple. When you ask a favor, I always do that first.”

In other words, on a day when he knew he couldn’t possibly get everything done, he began with me. Did I fully appreciate it?

But those days are over. I’m no longer married and can’t reverse taking Nate’s kindness for granted. But how about now? What’s happening now that I should be appreciating? The scriptural Paul daily appreciated being included in God’s family, allowed to have an ongoing relationship with Christ. He couldn’t get over that the Lord would allow him to represent the Gospel to others, after he’d led such a sinful life. He never once took his salvation for granted.

But shouldn’t that be the attitude of us all? Sin is sin, whether small or large, and we’re all in Paul’s camp, none qualified to be in God’s family on our own. Are we openly appreciative we belong to him? And when he gives us an assignment, are we as eager to fulfill it as Paul was?

Although I’m appreciative of my membership in the SCAC tonight, that’s nothing compared to my membership in God’s family. The question is, do I really appreciate it…

“I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength to do his work. He considered me trustworthy and appointed me to serve him.” (1 Timothy 1:12)

 

Need-Meeting

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No matter how many babies we added to our family, Nate’s daily office routine didn’t vary much. He left the house at 6:00 AM and walked back in at 7:00 pm, a long day (for both of us). But he was faithful never to be late coming home, almost to the minute.

My daily routine, on the other hand, was anything but consistent. One evening when I was especially frazzled, I asked Nate if he’d be willing to give me a gift. He answered carefully: “What might that be?”

“For you to stay home 30 minutes longer every morning so I can take a walk.”

I desperately needed alone-time to think, pray and gather courage for each day. The kids began waking around 6:00, so someone needed to be there.

Nate answered quickly. “OK, but I absolutely have to leave by 6:30 to get to my desk when I should.” His commute was a drive to the Metra station in the next suburb, a park-and-walk, a 45 minute train ride, then a 1½ mile walk to the other side of the Loop.

The next morning and every day after that for several years, I walked out the door at 5:45 AM and back in at 6:30. The few times I was late in returning, I’d pass Nate on the road. (He didn’t dare give me a schedule-inch, knowing I’d take a mile.)

Some days I hoofed it and covered a great distance. Others were more of a meander. If it was raining, I wore a hood and took my chances with the lightning. A foot of snow didn’t keep me home and neither did 22 degrees below zero. That 45 minutes meant everything.

Nate never reneged on his word and never complained about my rearranging his life. This impressed me, since I knew he didn’t understand the depth of my need. He did understand the walk was important to me, and because of that, it became important to him, and he sacrificed to make it happen.

Nate did a good job satisfying my need, but the #1 Need-Meeter is God. He watches us carefully, monitoring what’s important and what’s not. Then he sets to meeting what he considers to be a need.

The system doesn’t work, however, unless we agree to his definition and his way to handle it. We don’t always need to get into that college, get that specific job or marry that certain person. We don’t always need healing or even continued life on this earth. What we do need is unshakeable confidence that God’s assessment of what we need is flawless.

As our 7 children grew and the “baby” went to school, my need for the pre-dawn alone-time evaporated. Nate didn’t say, “Finally I can leave when I want!” He just said, “OK.” His definition of that gift would have been “30 minutes daily.” My definition was, “a sacrificial love willing to meet my need.”

In doing that, he’d imitated our loving, need-meeting God.

“Let your compassion [Lord], quickly meet our needs, for we are on the brink of despair.” (Psalm 79:8)