Reminders of our Dependence

This week, while fighting a terrible virus, I wrestled with the meaning of it all.  One night I wrote in my journal:

I don’t understand why we have to be sick. I suppose it’s one more thing we can chalk up to the Fall. Thanks Adam…thanks a lot! 

Sometimes I wonder if sickness isn’t much unlike a forest fire. A forest becomes overrun and rundown with dead trees and undergrowth.  In many ways, flourishing, but at the same time, choking itself out.

The fire comes through to start things over. The soil is enriched, the air is cleared, and new life begins. In fact, without the fiery conflagration, many of the plants and trees would be unable to reproduce. Pine cones and nuts litter the forest floor…rotting…until heat and pressure cause them to bear their life-giving seeds. And the cycle begins again.

And within our fleshly shells, a never-ending game of balance plays on day by day. When sickness assaults us, our system goes into survival mode. Our symptoms are simply our own body’s response to perceived imbalance. And when the war is done being waged, we stand stronger for the next battle. Once again, heat and pressure bring new life.

Perhaps of even more signficance is the fact that if there was no fire, no earthquake, no disaster: Creation would be without its groaning (Romans 8:20-22); even forgetting its fallen nature.

And so man, in the frailty of sickness is reminded of his death. Of his mortality. And therefore, his utter need for God.

What has independence gotten us? Sickness. Sorrow. Pain. Evil. And ultimately…DEATH.

Not that our loving Father causes us sickness to teach us a lesson. No, that is a result of the Fall. Yet, our Father, in His perfect wisdom and sovereignty, birthes good and truth out of every situation.

So the next time you awaken with a sore throat and stuffy nose, remember your mortality. Remember your humanity. Remember your absolute dependence on the Giver of all Life. May your own weakness drive you into the arms of the only One strong enough to sustain you. May you find rest and healing in his perfect Love.

Life as a Lamb

You know, there’s a reason why we are repeatedly referred to as sheep in the Bible…  Sometimes we just have to realize that we, as the little, feeble lambs that we are, don’t have the perspective that our Shepherd has.  We go around on our stubby little legs watching for wolves…trying to make it on our own…always looking for greener pastures… We can only see what’s right in front of us—that obstacle, that problem, that dilemma.  Nothing else matters…. It’s all about us… Until we’re broken… Yes, broken.  

 When a little lamb would wander off from the flock, the shepherd would take his staff, or crook, and break one of the legs of the little fellow.  This wasn’t out of anger, or sadistic humor, but purely out of love.  You see, if that little lamb didn’t learn his lesson then that wandering from the flock would only bring pain, he would learn it later at the jaws of some wild predator.

It is when we’re broken—a leg gets twisted, a hoof is split, or a painful lesson is learned—that the Good Shepherd picks us up and puts us on his shoulders.  He carries us when we can’t carry ourselves… And then we see everything differently.  Suddenly, we’re seeing from his perspective; the pastures on the other side, the other lambs frolicking, the revitalizing water flowing.  There’s no way we could see this larger picture on our own, in our stunted, pea-brained worldview.  Only on the shoulders of our Shepherd does everything come into focus.

Don’t be afraid of being broken.  Stop trying to make sense of this bleak world in your own human understanding.  God sees the whole picture.  Start trusting in him and seeing yourself, your problems, and your world through His eyes.  Only then will you begin to understand…

Know that he is in control and his ways are best.  I’ll leave you with this well known verse:  “‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’“  Most people stop here, but the following verses are perhaps the most important… and my challenge to you today…

“12 Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. 13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” (Jer 29:11-13, NIV)