Calm & Carrying On

“We would never learn to be brave and patient

if there were only joy in the world.”

-- Helen Keller

 I’ll just come right out and say it:  My mom is having open-heart surgery to replace her aortic valve this coming Friday.  Long-ish story short, she had been having chest pains off-and-on for a while, and hasn’t left the hospital since Dad took her to emergency three weeks ago to find out what was going on.  A narrowed aortic valve is the ‘what’ and its replacement is what the medical professionals have deemed necessary.  And while it is a relief, especially for Mom, to know she will have her energy and stamina back once all is said and done, it’s the part in-between there and now that are, I think, helping us all cultivate some bravery, patience, and stronger faith. 

I would love to say with certainty my mom won’t need surgery, that God will yet miraculously heal her.  But the words Jesus spoke to two blind men – “According to your faith, be it unto you” (Matthew 9:29) – are as applicable now as they were then.  So we pray and trust the surgery will go off without a hitch and the recovery process will be a complete and speedy one.  That is what my parents have faith for, and that doesn’t make them weak Christians or any such thing.  It is what it is, and while that sounds simplistic, there is no point in fretting over any ‘what ifs’ .

Plus, none of what is happening or what is to come has thrown God for a loop.  Something a friend posted on Facebook last week expresses it well: 

He knows the beginning from the end.
He is not worried. He is not anxious. He does not wonder. He is not panicking.
He is not dealing with today's uncertainty. He is not guessing what will happen.

He knows how it will all turn out. He has a plan. He made a way.

 

 God has made a way.  Our every need is provided for (Philippians 4:19).  And that is more than enough as we traverse this particular path. 

Pack Up Your Troubles

Worry is a misuse of imagination.
- Tommy Tenney

As it has often been said in one way or another by several people – Do what you're good at. Well I'm good at worrying, so does it not follow that is what I should do? At least that's is what I've told my husband on more than one occasion when he has told me not to worry about something. (Matthew 6:27 is true, otherwise I would be as tall as my 6' 3” husband . . .) Yet, Christian or not, there is an inherent flaw to that logic for anyone who thinks they should worry because he or she is good at it. And that would be this:

It accomplishes nothing good or productive.

Think about it. Does it make the situation you're worried about less scary? Do you feel better prepared for a test when you go into it with worry nipping at your heels? Does it give you confidence? Peace? Hope?

Oh, be honest now – you know it doesn't do any of those things. In fact, worry only serves to amplify the scariness of the unknown; it muddles your memory and can leave you uncertain, unsure, agitated, and bordering on hopeless if it's not properly checked and reigned in. But looking at what you're worried about and why can lead to some positive actions if dealt with properly. Worried about an upcoming test? You can choose to study more for it. A new situation have you on edge, uncertain? Research it as best you can, prepare for what you can prepare for and leave what you can't do anything about with God.

Yes, God – Christians are instructed in Proverbs 3: 5-6 to trust in the Lord with all their heart, mind, and soul and to not lean on their own understanding. And the best thing Christians can do is take their worries to God in prayer. He knows all the things people have need of, all the longings in every heart. And He know the way in which those needs and wants can best be met for the benefit of the individual and all those around him or her. Eugene H. Peterson expresses it succinctly in The Message, his popular paraphrase of the Bible:

Live carefree before God; he is most careful with you.
- 1 Peter 5:7

So we have a choice. Do we pack up our worries and leave them with God? Or carry them with us, day in and day out, weighing us down with every step?

And if you need some help, some hope, here is an excerpt from a letter sent to the Jewish leaders in the midst of their Babylonian captivity:

For I know the thoughts that I think
toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of
peace and not of evil, to give you
a future and a hope.
- Jeremiah 29:11 (NKJ)

No, Spell It Out. Please!

Just imagine it: You're running a very successful business with a multitude of employees and an enviable amount of assets. You have a nice house, a lovely wife. No children yet, but the years have stretched on far enough you don't really think about it too much anymore . . . compared to other years, anyway.

Then you are told to pack it all up. Gather up the staff, pack up the furniture and figure out how to move . . . somewhere. It hasn't all been spelled out yet. As in you've been told to move but with the seemingly key detail of 'where' being left out. Oh, and you'll have lots of descendants. Even though at the age of 75, you have yet to have any children at all.

Now the LORD said to Abram:
"Get out of your country,
From your family
and from your father's house,
To a land that I will show you.
I will make you a great nation . . ."
So Abram departed as the LORD had spoken to him . . .
Genesis 12: 1, 2a, 4a (NKJ)

Did you catch verse 4a? Did you, as I have at times, wondered if perhaps Abram had argued a little bit with God first? Maybe tried to wheedle the location out of Him beforehand?

But read it again: "So Abram departed as the LORD had spoken to him . . " No "What?" or "Are you sure?" or "Really?! Sure you don't mean Abe down the road?"; no, Abram packed everything up and eventually ended up in the land of Canaan and with a son whose name, Isaac, means 'laughter'. And he became a great nation.

So if Abram (later known as Abraham) can have such a trust in and a close walk with God that he could just pick up and go without it all being spelled out, why don't I basically do the same? I'm not without direction from God in my life if I really look at many of the things around me. Everything isn't all laid out in a clear, concise step-by-step plan is all.

I also have not been asked to pack up my work, my house and husband and leave all that is family and familiar and friendly for parts unknown. Not in the same sense as Abraham, anyway. But to stop the tangent before it gets out of control, why don't I go where God leads? Even when I can't see very far up the path?

Up, Down, and Around

At some point, I think, I would like to not have any upheavals in my life. Or maybe just my week.

I think my husband had just returned to work on a part-time basis after finishing chemotherapy when I ran into a woman whose house I used to clean. I caught her up a bit on the last few years, saying I was working at a great place, hubby had finished chemo, so on and so forth. "Finally," I remember thinking that June day, "things are getting back to normal."

Fast-forward two weeks (or so) and I, along with my boss and the rest of my co-workers, found out the plant we all worked at is being shut down (and even that deadline has been moved . . . again). So much for things getting back to normal.

And I'm still waiting.

I know God can and does use times like this to work things out of us and work things into us; I know with a certainty I don't always possess that God provided for my husband and I both during the first 6 months of '08 in an amazing way and I know He still provides. But I'm ready to have things settled at my 'old' job so I can settle into the 'new' one (same company, different location). I'm just ready for some sense of normalcy to come round again. Not that I want complacency . . . just not so much upheaval, please and thanks.

So often we all, as people, have plans of where we should be when what we really need to do is get a hold of God's plans of where we should be. I think through all this I need to remember to do that, and then go where He leads.

I don't think Douglas Adams was a Christian, but this quote seems apt:

"I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be."

A number of things have not gone as I planned or dreamed at one point or another, but I know where I have obediently followed Jesus, I have ended up where I have needed to be.