One Day At A Time

It continually amazes me when I take the time to listen and be aware of the Divine presence in my life.  God communicates with me through reading, through other people, through small whispers and through songs that randomly jump in my head.  For the last several months God has bathed me in the admonition to be still and wait.  The message has shifted over the last few weeks to one of "One day at a time."  A lady greeted me as we left the church building a few weeks ago asking that I pray for her to know what God wants her to do with her life and how she can serve God.  I looked at her and said let's start with this:  Tomorrow morning wake up and ask God what God wants you to do with that day.  I told her that she didn't have to have her whole life figured out.  Later in the week it dawned on me that the message God had given me for her was also a message God had given me for myself. 

Yesterday, I realized I had been singing the chorus of a song over and over in my head for the better part of a two hour drive that I had after seeing my son.  I had not turned on the radio.  I had not turned on my book to listen to.  I was lost for two hours in my thoughts and in this song that kept repeating in my head.  It dawned on me that it was an old Christy Lane song that my mother used to sing in church when I was a young girl.  You might guess that the title of the song is "One Day At A Time." 

The words: 

"One Day at a time Sweet Jesus.  That's all I'm asking from you.  Just give me the strength to do every day what I have to do.  Yesterday's gone sweet Jesus and tomorrow may never be mine.  Lord help me today, show me the way, One Day at a Time. " 

My scripture reading today was from the famous portion of scripture that contains Jeremiah 29:11 "I know the plans I have for you says the Lord, plans to prosper you and not harm you. Plans to give you a hope and a future."  These are certainly encouraging words but people neglect to understand the context of this verse and the verse that comes right before it.  Jeremiah is writing these words to the Israelites who are exiled to Babylon and are suffering.  The verse right before this famous verse states that only after 70 years will God rescue them from their exile.  Yes there is hope.  Yes God will and did rescue them.  Yes they did return from exile.....70 years later.  By then some of them had likely died.  You see this promise was a promise of God's presence to a community of people.  This promise was a promise of victory.  It was not a promise of victory without pain.  It was not a promise of victory without suffering and grief.  It was a promise of God's presence and God's control over the final outcomes of life. 

In the last two months I have watched two friends suffer tremendous loss and I have been following their journey of grief via Facebook.  One of them quoted the portion of scripture where Jesus is in the garden praying about his upcoming crucifixion.  

³⁸ Then he said to them, “I am deeply grieved, even to death; remain here, and stay awake with me.” ³⁹ And going a little farther, he threw himself on the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; yet not what I want but what you want.” Matthew 26:38-39.  (NRSV)

I had never let it sink in the depth of the grief Jesus was experiencing.  I never let it sink in the loneliness he felt in his grief when he found the disciples sleeping.  It was not until I read this from the point of view of a grieving mother that the power of these two verses really sank in.  Jesus, our Savior, our Lord, felt the same kind of grief that we feel and his response was to turn it over to God's hands and to trust God with the ultimate outcome.   

So, I hear God telling me One Day at a Time and I pray the prayer the Psalmist of Psalm 63 prayed:

O God, you are my God, I seek you,
    my soul thirsts for you;
my flesh faints for you,
    as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.
² So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary,
    beholding your power and glory.
³ Because your steadfast love is better than life,
    my lips will praise you.
⁴ So I will bless you as long as I live;
    I will lift up my hands and call on your name.

⁵ My soul is satisfied as with a rich feast,^[a]
    and my mouth praises you with joyful lips
⁶ when I think of you on my bed,
    and meditate on you in the watches of the night;
⁷ for you have been my help,
    and in the shadow of your wings I sing for joy.
⁸ My soul clings to you;
    your right hand upholds me  Psalm 63:1-8

 

God: Friend of the Brokenhearted-A Reflection of Psalm 34

            This world is full of brokenhearted people.  At one point in time each of us will experience a broken heart.  We may experience it more than once.  We experience broken hearts when we experience the death of a loved one.  We experience broken hearts when our children take a path that we would not have them take.  We experience broken hearts when a relationship we thought would be forever falls apart.  We experience broken hearts when plans fail.  We experience broken hearts when we watch this world turn to violence and exploitation.  We all experience broken hearts.  The good news of Psalm 34 is found in verse 18:  “The Lord is close to the brokenhearted, he saves those whose spirits are crushed.” 

            Psalm 34 is a great Psalm to go to and to pray in those times when your heart is broken and your spirit is crushed.  We are called to Bless and Praise the Lord in all times, even and maybe especially in times of heartache and suffering.  The Psalmist gives us hope by sharing his experience of seeking the Lord in the midst of his suffering and being delivered from his fears.  The Psalmist assures us in verse 10 that even the strongest experience brokenness but that those who seek God will be delivered. 

            Psalm 34 also gives instruction on how to honor God.  We honor God when we love life and relish the chance to enjoy Good things.  We honor God from “keeping our toungue from evil and our lips pure.”  It’s very tempting in times of broken heartedness to lash out with our words and our actions.  The Psalmist warns us that no good can come from that.  Rather than lashing out at those who may be the source of your broken heart, cry out to God.  God will deliver you from your troubles.  May you find comfort in this Psalm today.  In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.  

A Child has Died.......Why?

Yesterday in the Mountaineer Newspaper the reader was introduced to local author, Ann Davis Melton.  The Headline read “Author shares miracles in her walk with God.”[1]  The book is described as “a first-hand account of the power of prayer and the successes that can come from closely waking with the Lord.”   Ms. Melton will be signing her book at Blue Ridge Books and News on Saturday and Sunday of this week and I plan to get my copy.  However, I also plan to ask the author if she plans a follow up book on where God was in the times of her life that weren’t successful, during the “wilderness” times of her life.  You see the same day this article came out a 6 y/o little girl, Emilee Russell, took her last breath in a hospital far from her home after suffering complications from Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever.  Her parents and friends walk closely with God and prayer chains all over the country were lifting this little girl to God.  They prayed for the same miracle given to the Woman of Nain in Luke chapter 7 when as her only son was being carried out dead in a coffin Jesus commanded “Young man, I say to you get up!”  and he did.  Yet, still yesterday she took her last breath. 

The Newspaper article could give the wrong impression that as long as you walk closely with God, bad things will not happen.   I do believe that miracles still happen.  Little Emilee Russell and her family experienced such a miracle when she and her twin brother were born at 24 weeks and survived.  One is left to wonder why her life was spared then to only be taken now.  I’m certain that the Russell’s and their friends ask the same questions I asked when my nephew, Jax, was born at 20 weeks, took one breath and died in my brother’s waiting arms.  I’m certain they have the same question my best friend and her siblings had when their faithful, God fearing mother was robbed from them by the horrible disease we know of cancer at the age of 43.  Why?  Why did I not deserve a miracle and someone else did. I wonder if King David wondered this when his infant child died in the book of Samuel.  I wonder if the mother in the Isaiah story of the infant who lived but just a few days had the same question.

 It’s during these times that I remember that the Bible is full of both stories of heartbreak and stories of great joy.  There are no answers in it as to why some people receive these miracles and why others don’t.  Life brings tragedy.  God didn’t rob the Russells of their little precious daughter, Rocky Mountain spotted fever did.  God didn’t rob my brother of his precious son, underdeveloped lungs did.  God didn’t rob my best friend of her mother, cancer did.

 I am reminded of an email I received just a few short weeks ago from the Worship Leader at my former church letting me know that her husband had been diagnosed with terminal cancer.  Her husband had seen miracles in his life.  He had “cheated” death twice already following a near fatal accident and a heart attack.  In the email she wrote “we recognize that everyone has an appointment with death.”  Donnie died a week later, cancer, not God, robbing his family of more time with him. 

Where is the good News in any of this?  The Good News is that the Jesus, who wept when his friend Lazarus died, weeps with us in our times of heartache and sorrow.  The Good news is that the same God that was present at his own son’s untimely death is present with us during the untimely tragedies of our own lives and he has experienced the same heartache and sorrow that we feel.  The God News is that Jesus came and brought the message of love to a world that desperately needed it and put that love in the hearts of people so that in these times humanity can surround those who are victims of tragedy with the Love that indwells within them through Jesus Christ.  The Good News is we have all read the end of the story and know that death is not the end for us but only the beginning of New Life.  The Good News is that in the end Jesus has victory over death.  We see that through the witness of the resurrection.

  So, what can we do in times like this but surround a family with that love?  Just as the towns people surrounded Mary and Martha at the death of their brother Lazarus.  We weep with them, we provide for them, we love them with the powerful love of Jesus.  We carry them just as the crippled man’s friends carried him to Jesus.  There will be a miracle.  The miracle will be that The Russell’s will survive this tragedy.  They will look on the other side of this war torn bridge their crossing and say I don’t know how I did it, but I did.  They will make it to the other side through the prayers, support and love of their friends and family and through the peace that passes all understanding.  I hope Ms. Melton will write stories like these as well. 

 

 

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[1] (Hyatt 2013)