How blessed is the man who fears the Lord, who greatly delights in His commandments. He will not fear evil tidings; his heart is steadfast, trusting in the Lord.   Psalm 112:1,7

In the spring of 1996 my wife and I left around 7 a.m. to take our older daughter to play in a soccer tournament.  As we began to walk onto the fields searching for Adrienne’s team, I noticed people pointing at us and a police officer walking towards us.  I knew that we were about to receive bad news and dread began to fill my soul.  My fears centered around our younger daughter who was not with us and my mother who had been ill.  I could not bear the thought of anything happening to either of them.  The police officer informed us that my mother had passed away around the time that we left our home and that my father had contacted them to inform us.  In that moment my strength left and I dropped to my knees filled with both grief and relief.  I grieved my mother’s passing and was greatly relieved that Christine was ok.  Since that day, I have learned much about dreaded news through experience and the faith of fellow servants of our Lord. 

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Wait for the Lord; be strong and let your heart take courage; yes, wait for the Lord. Psalm 27:14

This spring I was finally diagnosed after a 27 year wait.  A fresh perspective, advances in technology, and a better understanding of the human body have come together provide the relevant information for a conclusive finding.  During that time there was much angst, frustration, concern and of course much prayer on our behalf.  I regularly went to the Lord throughout that time, however, the tone and nature of my prayers changed as God used my poor health to mature my perspective.  At first I prayed that God would relieve my pain.  After some time, I began to ask for His grace to endure this illness.  Having given up my career and studying the matter in earnest, I began to request that God would instruct me.  I have now come to the point that I beseech our Father in Heaven to use my trials to allow me to be a minister of His mercy to others.    While I make no claims to being the best student or a perfect model of godliness, I am grateful that God has matured my faith and has kept me looking to Him for solace and direction.  To be sure waiting on God can be difficult.  Scripture is full of examples of those that tried to hurry things along rather than wait on God.  Yet, in order to patiently and graciously wait on God we must keep in mind that He will hear us, He is our hope, and He will be good to us.

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Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.  Proverbs 3:5-6

As we make final preparations for our daughter Adrienne’s wedding this weekend, one of my main concerns is the father daughter dance.  As much as I love to dance, I prefer to avoid the spotlight as I struggle to remember all of the steps and provide the proper leads while also trying to maintain the proper form.  It is not just a matter of looking good, but also, in some cases, a matter of personal safety.  The picture above is of Christine and me at her wedding nine years ago.  By the grace of God, Marie and I have had the privilege of parenting our two daughters who have grown into lovely women.  As such, these two dances signify transition in that my role as their father takes a back seat to their new life with their respective husbands.  That said, as their father, they still trust that they can come to me with anything knowing that I will do my best to help them.  In that regard they place much trust in me.  However, as much as I desire to help them, I cannot provide the assurance that their Heavenly Father can. Most of what follows has been published before but is a favorite of mine and has much to do with the title of this blog site.

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See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are. For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.  1 John 3:1

As the father of two, I have a greater understanding of God’s love for us than prior to parenthood.  My wife and I have very different personalities and our daughters have followed suit.  In most ways our older daughter’s personality is more like mine while our younger daughter’s is more like her mother’s.   My relationship with my daughters is equally different.  Adrienne and I think alike, understand each other more readily and both enjoy music and dancing.  Christine and I have to work harder to understand each other, but make the effort.  I’m not sure either of us enjoys painting our homes, but we enjoy doing it together and make a great team.  We also share a love of gardening…allowing us to go to a plant store together is financially risky.  I love and am truly grateful for both of our daughters and could not imagine my life without either of them.  The same is true of our Heavenly Father’s relationship with each of us.  We each have different personalities, talents and character flaws.  We are at different places in our lives as well as at different places in our faith and spiritual maturity.  Further, our Father has different plans for us.  As a result, we have different needs; therefore, His provisions for us and the life experiences that He has ordained for us will be as varied as the structure of snowflakes…no two are alike. As a result, his children often struggle to understand His love for them.

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“Blessed be the Lord, for He has made marvelous His lovingkindness to me in a besieged city.”  Psalm 31:21

For those of you that follow my blog closely, you may have noticed that my Monday quotes and the verse of the day have dropped off.  Life has been a bit challenging and I’ve had to surrender a bit to maintain my sanity.  Life with chronic illness is a battle against both known and unknown factors.  It is a battle of the mind and soul as well as the body which often leaves one feeling besieged. 

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Cease striving and know that I am God.  Psalm 46:10a

Despite my chronic illness, I would be considered by many to still be high functioning and unless one knows me, they would be unlikely to recognize my limitations.  I have learned over time that when I yield to the needs of my body for rest and watch what I eat, I can function somewhat normally; that said I still struggle.   It’s a challenge not to worry about the cost of my illness both financially and as a source of stress to myself, my family and close friends.  I also struggle to maintain some sense of control; if I can’t fix my illness than I try to fix other things that don’t matter in the larger scale as they provide some sense of reassurance that things are ok.  I also struggle with my self-image.  Physically I want to appear normal yet not so normal that people think I’m a hypochondriac.  It’s a common struggle for those of us with invisible illnesses.  Further, I want to be relevant and useful, but feel that is regularly not the case.  The verse above is displayed in our den right beside our TV.  I’ve put it there for two reasons.  First it is the primary focal point of the room and my focal point needs to be God’s sovereignty over all things.  Second, it sits next to the TV as a reminder that God is the final authority on whatever the world offers as truth.  Part of that truth is that I need to let go and trust God. 

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“For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of parched ground; He has no stately form or majesty that we should look upon Him, nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him.  He was despised and forsaken of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and like one from whom men hide their face He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.”  Isaiah 53:2-3

Backstories can add significant depth to the words of a song.  Similarly, factual biographies can help us understand historical figures.  In order to facilitate some introspection as we approach Christmas, the last two posts have discussed The Encounter with God as well as The Invitation that Christ offers.  To fully appreciate what it means to encounter God and invitation that Christ presents to us, we need to also consider the background of Christ’s incarnation and all that it entails.  To get a complete grasp, one must read the entire Bible.  However, one of the most concise summaries of Christ’s life was written before He was born.  God gave this particular account through the prophet Isaiah in chapter 53.  This depiction gives us insight into the Lord and Savior that: asks us to forfeit our entitlements to all that we hold dear in this life for the Glory of God; offers the promise of a reconciled and blessed eternity; and asks us to come to Him no matter how sordid our background so that we may enter into His rest. The goal is not to put a damper on the celebration, but rather to afford  a focused understanding of Christ’s sacrifice,we can draw near and worship Him more fully during the Christmas season.

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Oh give thanks to the Lord, call upon His name; Make known His deeds among the peoples.  Psalm 105:1

As it is Thanksgiving in the United States, please join me in refection upon Psalm 136 which is a beautiful model for being truly thankful.  As this Psalm states, no matter what God is doing, His love for us is everlasting.  It starts with who God is, moves through various things that He has done and finishes with how He is ever mindful of us.

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“For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?”  Matthew 16:26

Trust is a fairly basic concept as it rests solely on confidence.  That confidence relies on the integrity, strength, ability, surety, etc., of some entity or object.  In contrast, what we consider valuable in our lives and how much we fear losing those things varies from person to person due to maturity, faith, relationships, life experiences, etc.  Another contrast between the two is the impact on our well-being.  Trust provides calm, healing and peace while fear brings distraction, stress and destruction.  Fear comes in varying degrees and for various reasons but consider the following factors of fear: the object, the measurement, the security and the trustee.

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“I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe.”  Ephesians 1:18-19

We have a pair of binoculars stored in our closet that belonged to my parents.  I remember looking at them as a child and learning how to use them.  Employed correctly, they provide clarity; however, used improperly they distort making matters worse than if they had not been used at all.  The same principal applies in our lives when we fail to look at things from God’s perspective.  This is true with respect to both our circumstances and our interactions with others.  It is a matter of hope and faith.

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