Many Mini-Miracles

Many Mini-Miracles

Jerry, called as a reclamation project to be a servant to children and now to encourage and challenge, to build up and inform, to ask and listen to friends and family, known and unknown. To the faithful Calvary's Thread readers.

Sounds pretty pretentious to me but I wanted to try it anyway with all those wonderful letters from Paul setting the standard for salutation. Somehow when he did it with his long and impressive pedigree it didn’t sound bad at all. Now that I’ve gotten that out of the way…

I have a confession to make, actually I have too many to put in a post and still keep to my goal of one type-written page per post. I am gluttonous. I see blessings and little miracles almost all of the time; in fact, whenever I rouse myself to look I can see them. I want more; I want it all, including the big stuff. I want to see my mother-in-law walking down the hall because she wants to do something down the hall. I want to hear her laugh at a joke she made and I want to see her confer hugs and embrace her grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

I started writing this post weeks ago and every time that I thought I’d sit down to finish it I put it off hoping that the next visit to see her would be the one where I could write about the big stuff – seeing and hearing the real Jan and watching her be animated and involved, initiating lines of conversation with us.  We’ve seen her improve from comatose to various levels of alertness, combing her hair, brushing her teeth, and laughing at funny stories that are being told. She walks down the hall under the supervision of the physical therapists at their urging. Yesterday we visited and she vocalized more than at any other time, clear hellos and then I’m quite sure that she said something about the marriage contract when I joked about the small print in our agreement getting me out to a quilting show with Cindy. It was a good day for her. Her grand-nephew came later in the day and reported a similar experience.

I rejoice for a few minutes and then my gluttony takes over. All these mini-miracles are adding up and maybe even add up today to a good sized miracle; after all, we still have her with us and more so each visit. Still, I need more and why shouldn’t I have it? The test of faith is almost too much to bear. We ask and intercede for Jan and sign off on the prayers in Jesus name. Is the answer no or is it “show me your faith”? What?

I would like to understand how Mary did it. Look at John 2: 1-12 and read about Jesus turning water into wine. Mary tells Jesus about the wine running out and he tells her no, that it’s not his time. Mary tells the servants to do whatever Jesus tells them and he responds to that with his first miracle and turns the water into the best wine of the feast. What was the key there? Some little thing that only Jesus’ mom would know that forced him to act? Faith for sure as she acted on what she saw as a need that could be filled by Jesus and to kick-start his career. But what was the real trigger and how can I implement it? It feels like a dangerous thing for me to question my own faith and to put the onus on myself. It scares me a little to consider these things.

I’ll take the mini-miracles and expect one or more each time I visit or hear a report from others. I’ll hope for them to pile up and when taken as a whole to have them add up to the big stuff. Who am I to question how God does things? He looks at the long range, further down field than I can. Perhaps He already sees her in one piece again and I only need to have a veil or two removed to see it as well. God help me.

Apply Within: Sending My Resume to Heaven

The title for this came to me early this morning and for once I did what a writer should do and wrote it down. I let the idea of putting a resume together for entrance into heaven run through my mind awhile wondering how I could make an application for entrance into the Kingdom of God. It was like a stream slowly meandering its way through a meadow. By all rights I should have been allowed to drift back to sleep on a lazy Saturday morning.

 

I think my mind is a bit fertile for this because I have found myself introducing Jan to Jesus while praying for my mother-in-law saying things like “Jesus, bring healing to our sister Jan, your servant, a Deaconess in the church, a woman of faith who serves the poor in spirit, the poor in the world, and serves the church. Remember her and bring restoration.” I have been building her resume to Jesus who knows all of that and more about her. I suppose I should just simplify things and stop the bargaining; “Jesus bring healing and restoration by your power and grace, let the act of your perfect sacrifice have its full effect.”

 

When I’m at work I often turn to those who have experience with the particular issue that I am wrestling with so why not with this issue? I sought out the wisdom and words of a couple of old-timers, Paul and James

Paul put together a very nice resume in Philippians 3, versus 4b-6; he has an impressive pedigree. Yet in versus 7&8 he sets that notion aside, “⁷Yet whatever gain I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. ⁸More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish in order that I may gain Christ, and be found in him,”

So my anemic resume; son of pillars of LCPC, longtime youth worker, struggling Christian writer…really mean nothing when it is measured against the perfect sacrifice and doesn’t, in itself, get me any nearer to Jesus.

James sets the stage for his discourse on faith and works in chapter 1 verse 22 of the book of James, “²²But be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves.” In chapter 2: verses 14-26 James juggles faith and works with the keynote in verse 17 “¹⁷So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.” And he follows this with “^18band by my works I will show you my faith.”

 

I have found myself checking off items on my Heavenly To-Do List thinking that this is the pathway to heaven. It is just no so; it is not as simple as that at all. While thinking over Paul’s and James’ words I picture an old-fashioned balance scale and for me to pile good works on one side so that works outweighs faith and sits firmly on the table is no good; I’ve simply made myself look good to others. And conversely, if I pile faith up on the other pan and it comes to rest on the table, I have deceived myself. This begs the question of how does one pile up faith without works; what does that look like? Do I sit around reading scripture and then walk around reciting the “I believe ins” of the Apostle’s Creed and count that as faith. No, I must achieve the great balance, first by believing and building up my faith and then by doing the things God sets in front of me because of my faith.

 

When all is said and done and I find myself at the Gates of Heaven standing in front of Saint Peter perhaps I will just make it simple and read him this while he checks for my name in the Book of Life, “Dear Peter, I am a sinner, a man with a weak heart and checkered past. I am here to throw myself on the boundless grace of Jesus and claim the power of His resurrection. Only Jesus’ forgiveness can get me in; nothing that I’ve done or not done, good or bad, can get me in.”

Stop. It's Time to Pray

Romans 8: 26 “And in the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words” NASB

A couple of Sundays ago Ashley, our Director of Children’s Ministries, spoke to the children that had gathered on the chancel stairs. I had a pretty good view from stage left of the chancel as I prepared to follow the children’s time with the prayer of confession. It is Operation Christmas Child time so the church family is busily gathering supplies and gifts to pack what we hope will be well over three hundred boxes for needy children throughout the world. Ashley shared how at the Samaritan’s Purse packing stations while the workers are preparing all of the collected boxes to be shipped to over a hundred countries a voice comes over the loud speaker system saying “Stop. It’s time to pray.” Everyone stops whatever they are doing and prays over the boxes, blessing them with the Spirit, and praying for the recipient to know Christ through the gift and the givers.

That phrase has stuck with me and is my nugget from the service. It has become a touchstone over the last couple of weeks. With my mother-in-law suffering a debilitating stroke and a few days later my sister-in-law was in a freak accident in which suffered a broken pelvis I have much to be in prayer and intercession for with these two who are so near to my heart in such deep need. At work, during my walks, working at home, and even while vegetating in front of the TV the phrase resonates in my mind and I have to quiet myself in some way and pray. Even while gathered with the family in the hospital room with my mother-in-law, one not fully aware while we carry on conversations of every kind, the reverb comes to me, “Stop. It’s time to pray”. And so I do stop and touch each one with a feather of prayer to aid in our vigil; we pray and hope, wait and see.

I found it interesting that in a place with people gathered in an activity inherently good and with a Christly objective that we are also in need of reminders to stop and pray. I think it is another instance of Martha versus Mary, Mary stopped, prayed, and paid attention to the best thing while Martha needed to be reminded to stop her good work and heed to the groaning of the Spirit. We need to be reminded from time to time to give voice to the groanings within us; pause a bit in our labors, in our joys, and in our sorrows, to acknowledge the Spirit within us that intercedes on our behalf.

Of all of the things I have to be thankful for, a list that I cannot do justice to or am deserving of, I am at this moment extremely thankful for the nugget that I picked up, the echo of hope that invades my conscious thought to give me an opportunity to thank God for that list and pray for those that the Spirit has placed on my heart.

Yes, one would be you.

In His grip, jerry

Love, the Word of Life

There is no doubt about it; love is running rampant in our family. Lauren and Taylor’s wedding was a great experience of love between the two of them as well as the outpouring that I felt with all of our friends and family celebrating with us. Our niece Kaylynn and her fiancé are a real solid couple and are next up on what is now a wedding parade. The Cornelius family with Ashley and Matt, Teya and Jeremiah, and Curt and Jean are a continuing love story that fills our hearts. I have to list Kayla and Grady’s marriage too, they are wonderful, and she’s our bonus daughter. And now to top the wedding cake in this parade are Ani and Daniel getting married. We just had the fantastic experience of meeting Ani’s family and friends at the engagement party and seeing Daniel’s friends and our side of the family get to know each other. I loved every minute, even kicking the evening off with the honor of blessing the rings and relationship in front of our new friends and I am indeed deeply honored.

It is only by God’s grace that such overwhelming joy should be mine and as undeserving as I feel that I am, I will take it just the same and in the spirit that it was given. In honor of these kids and God’s working in our lives I offer a few thoughts on love.

The first Epistle of John offers a clear picture of love and I appreciate how John starts his letter off from a position of strength, standing on the rock of his apostleship:

1 John 1: 1 – “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched – this we proclaim concerning the Word of life.”

Once he sets the stage and completes the foundation for his letter John talks about walking in the light and forsaking sin as a result of it. He addresses the letter to his dear children (2:1, 12, & 13), his dear friends (2:7), fathers (2:13 & 14), and young men (2:13 & 14). He tells us how we’ve overcome the evil one, been forgiven, and known the father. He warns us not to love the world and that the antichrist is already walking the earth. Then John tells us about love, where it is from and that it is the reason we can overcome the world.

1 John 3:1 “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!”

First we hear how great a love the Father has for us, giving his son as a sacrifice to reconcile us to Himself, then John tells us how to love with a couple of my favorite verses (yes, at least in part because it confirms my assertion that love is a verb), 1 John 3: 16 “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.” with 1 John 3:18 “Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.”

John then continues with more warnings and an admonition to the test the spirits and comes right back to the powerful word of life that can overcome ungodly spirits. He counsels us with words that end in a classic three-word phrase; read it here, 1 John 4: 7 & 8 “Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.”

Love your friends, love your parents, love your children, love your God, and love all those He puts in your path. Love and cherish them all.

I struggled with the title for this post so I decided to bookend it with the alternate title:

Love: the Word of Life.

In His grip,

jerry

Something Old – Older Than Dirt

For Lauren and Taylor:

1 John 4: 7-8 “⁷Dear Friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. ⁸Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.”

I did the math; it’s true. After all of these years of hearing it said of others and now approaching the time where it will be (if it hasn’t already been) said of me, “He’s older than dirt”, I have at last found something that actually is older than dirt. Love, and proved by a simple algebraic equation: if A=B and B=C, then A=C. Therefore, if God is love (1 John 4:8 above) and God created the earth or dirt (see John 1:3 below & Genesis 1) then Love is older than dirt.

John 1: 1-5 (New Living Translation) “¹In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. ²He existed in the beginning with God. ³God created everything through him, and nothing was created except through him. ⁴The Word gave life to everything that was created, and his life brought light to everyone. ⁵The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it.”

I could easily end this post right there and be vindicated in putting a little something out there that is worthy of a few moments of thought but I want to have a little fun with this and share what drove me to write this.

My family is consumed right now, and rightly so, with the marriage of a young man, Taylor whom I’ve known and enjoyed since he was in third grade Sunday School class and come to respect as a man, to our daughter, Lauren whom I’ve known, loved, enjoyed, come to respect as a woman, along with the whole litany of emotions dads have with their kids since I’ve known she was coming on the scene and that my story had a new character to be written in for the next few chapters.

The other day I was considering what to wear at the wedding in addition to my new gray suit and I thought of getting my Grandpa Matt’s watch out of the box I keep it in and having my own “something old” with me. It is not an expensive watch, nor is it beautiful beyond what it means to me. I’ve been blessed to feel special connections to both my grandfathers and this watch is what I have from Grandpa Matt. I still feel his presence from time-to-time and I’d like to say only whenever significant events like this one are on me but he’s been “around” a few times when I’ve made a bloody fool of myself and I’ve felt his disapproval of my behavior. Oh, that cloud of witnesses can be a tricky thing.

I picked up the self-winding watch with the intent of getting it repaired so that it would be ticking the day of the wedding. I set the time on that early morning and it began ticking immediately. I put it on and wore it to the office and throughout the day and when I took it off that night before bed it had stayed within a minute of the GPS time I had set it to.

I choose to believe that Grandpa Matt is smiling with me now as I wish Taylor and Lauren that thing which is older than dirt, Love. And Love abundantly.

 

Virtual Christ

A few days ago I was taking a web-based training course at work “Ethernet VLANs”, course number 60527394 with VLAN being the acronym for Virtual Local Area Network. The course material defined virtual as being “a logical representation of a real device”. I began wondering if being Virtual Christ would be good or bad; can you blame me, wouldn’t you rather think about Jesus than Ethernet VLANs?

Can we be Actual Christ on earth? Not so much, since He is a real being having a real and resurrected body; just ask the Apostle Thomas (John 20: 26-28). How then are people to get to know Him unless He appears to them as he did to those waiting in Jerusalem (Luke 24: 36-49), on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24: 13-32), or fishing on the Sea of Tiberias (John 20: 1-14)? They will get to know Jesus just as those first-to-be-called Christians got to know Jesus (Acts 2, read it all, it’s good for you); they did it through those who already knew Him and who spoke God’s word by the power of the Holy Spirit. If we cannot be Actual Christ then we must be Virtual Christ, a logical representation of him that functions and behaves the same as the real deal.

Jesus himself encourages us to do this saying “He who receives you receives me, and he who receives me receives the one who sent me.” (Matt 10: 40) Virtual Jesus.

I will be commissioned tomorrow as a Kids’ Hope mentor and have been reviewing the materials in preparation for this new adventure. Since we are in an official capacity on the school campus we cannot pray with the children we mentor and nor can we witness to them in any overt way. We are there to love them, relate to them, minister to them, and to help educate them. The official manual encourages us to “Be Jesus with skin on” to the kids.

Paul helped me out with this as well with his instructions for us to be imitators of the apostles. Read through 1 Cor: 11:1, Phil 3:17, 1 Thess 1:6, and 2 Thess 3:7 and be encouraged to imitate the apostles or those godly men and women who set the standards for service within our own churches and homes.

LANs started out as computer networks in the same room that soon spread to a network within the same building and then through a campus environment only to be one upped by “WAN”s, Wide Area Networks as transmission techniques and media improved. That’s all the internet is, a very wide area network of networks. Common users in the VLAN, those who are not related to Timothy McGee (NCIS), have no idea where the other network users are or where the equipment resides that comprise the VLAN. It acts just as a network would that resides in the home or office and is indistinguishable in its performance.

I have been blessed to know a lot of young people over the years, many who served with me during Mission Arizona (MAZ) trips where we served the Pima Indians at the Vah Ki Presbyterian church and the surrounding neighborhood. Several of those kids have friended me on Facebook and I note that those who go to MAZ and later go on to serve in the Dominican most often post profile photos of themselves with the children they meet. That is a wonderful representation of Christ and how he is with the children and a great example of Jesus with skin on. It is those times that make the deepest impressions on us as well as those we serve.

Be imitators of the apostles and of Christ; be Jesus with skin on to the people He puts in our path. Go ahead, be Virtual Christ and a powerful representation of the real device.

Above the Fog

It was a good day for a hike with friends and as I looked out of my upstairs window I could see a gray on gray morning, gray sky above a fog and I could just make out the trees in a silhouette across the street. As I drove down Briggs to hit the cross-street that would take me over to New York Avenue I was first immersed in the fog and just as I turned right onto Whittier Avenue it started to thin out and I could see the underbelly of the cloud cover. Whittier soon became Orange Avenue with early morning walkers; couples with dogs, singles with and without, and a jogger or two. As I made my way across the little valley squid like tendrils felt their way over the street, reaching for my Subaru like I was Captain Nemo cruising the depths of the sea.

From Mt. Lukens

I survived the fog’s attempt to draw me deeper into the shroud and reached Deukmejian Park, the trailhead where I met with my friends of faith, Scott, Steve, and Greg; it turned out that Geoff went on ahead earlier to avoid holding us up, the task that now would be left up to me. Somebody had to slow these guys down. I fell in with Scott, or rather, he fell behind to keep me company and we talked; mostly about our kids and their triumphs and struggles, my Lauren’s upcoming wedding to Taylor, his Lauren’s sprouting career and blossoming life of faith in the her new church. We talked about our sons winding paths that we believe will bring them to a solid footing of faith in our Lord. While we traversed the switchbacks climbing the face of Mount Lukens we came to the spot we’ve named John’s Point in remembrance of our late friend and fellow hiker, John Olson where we found ourselves well above the fog; we noted that we live in the valley, work there, and travel to and from all the places that we need to be and only occasionally climb up above for the vistas and a clear view over the Verdugos, over L.A. and on to Catalina Island as it peeked up above the fog out in the Pacific.

Our spiritual lives are often like that; down in the valley and so often in the fog, we need to cling to Jesus to take us through all the day-to-day foggy moments. I find that for myself, I often times have to find some way to rise above the fog to see that He has been with me all along. I got lost there for awhile in my own thoughts and reflected on “Squinting Through Fog”, a faith-blog by Cameron Lee that I’ve been enjoying for his insightful and often times witty commentary on life and the Scriptures. I recommend it: http://the-fog-blog.com. At this point in our hike I really liked Cameron’s explanation of his blog name and here, with his permission, I cut and paste that explanation: “The name of the blog comes from Eugene Peterson’s paraphrase of 1 Cor 13:12 in The Message: ‘We don’t yet see things clearly.  We’re squinting in a fog, peering through a mist.  But it won’t be long before the weather clears…’  Each post is thus an attempt at faithful “squinting,” an exercise of biblical and theological imagination in the midst of the sometimes ambiguous journey we call the Christian life.”

I recommend that you squint in the fog and peer into the mist to find the risen Christ in everything you do and I recommend that you find a way above the fog and take in the wonders of His vast creation to find your place in it and how you fit into God’s story.

Sometime you have to go to more extreme measures to get above the fog only to find out once you get there the fog lifted while you were on your way up.

Flying over San Clemente Island, coming in for a landing.