I would like to share with you about how God works in our lives in particular times and seasons. This message is flowing out of the one year anniversary of my eye surgery for a melanoma tumor growing in the back of my right eye.
One year ago I entered a season of my life that I didn't expect and I didn't want to experience. For much of my adult life I've been the one on the care giving side of life. As a Medical laboratory technician, Registered Nurse and Pastor I've been the 'go to' guy in providing advice, counsel, prayer and support.
Suddenly and without warning 'the lights went out' in my right eye and I was now placed in a season of receiving care and being sent to places in the natural I would never want to go. In November of last year I wrote some reflections in my personal blog about what I was experiencing and I want to share some of that with you here. It references my expectation prior to the cancer diagnosis that I would be leading a mission trip to Nepal.
"On my way to Nepal, I took a wrong turn and wound up in Birmingham, Alabama. I had spent nearly a year planning on helping lead a team to serve the ministry of Compassion for Asia in Kathmandu, Nepal. I have had various emotions hit me over the last two weeks as I process the 'wrong turn' that led me to Birmingham, Alabama. It's one thing to understand and believe God is sovereign when he does what you want and expect with your life. But what about when our well laid plans are cancelled or altered? Well I am finding out it's not as easy as I thought! I have spent the last 31 years of my life immersing myself in God's word. It's a really good thing to have your soul saturated with truth. By God's grace which is transmitted to us through prayer and God's word, I've had an amazing peace on the inside of my life during this time.
Yesterday the radiologist who specializes in cancer treatment discussed my treatment with me. He gave me the facts regarding my prognosis and the effects the radiation will have on the cancer and also on my eye. The facts are stark and serious...but God is loving and he never stopped talking while Dr. Kim delivered his sobering assessment. One phrase of God's word which keeps coming to the surface of my soul over the last several days is 'momentary and light affliction'. I felt God telling me that whatever lies ahead of me must be placed in the context of his ongoing will for my life... an eternal perspective.
The phrase comes from Paul's letter to the church in Corinth (2 Corinthians chapter 4: and verses 16-18, "Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal."
I didn't get lost on my way to Nepal. I didn't make a wrong turn on my way to Birmingham, Alabama. The awesome and amazing thing about knowing and loving God is that he never leaves us...never forsakes us. His presence and purpose are being fulfilled in my life. So many of you who know me are praying and asking God to heal me. I have heard from hundreds of you via phone calls, texts, Facebook and Twitter. I appreciate your encouragement and love so much! I am listening to God through this process. I am still not completely comfortable being the the patient receiving the care and love from others. But clearly my right turn to Birmingham involves just that...being loved and cared for and healed by God and people...people like you, who choose to think of others and care for them in their time of need. I feel the love! I receive it with gratitude and great joy. There are three things that last forever, faith, hope and love. On the road to Birmingham I am being filled with all three in powerful and challenging ways. Thanks for taking the right turn to Birmingham with me. (end of blog from one year ago)
It's so very important to recognize that while we can observe the seasons of our lives and choose to embrace them...we cannot determine them or change them at will. Following God implies we trust him and lean to him for understanding.
Proverbs chapter 3: 5,6 "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths."
We are all pilgrims on a journey with God. The examples of the Biblical saints and Godly men and women show us the way of trust and surrender. I love the Godly example of the life of Jim Eliot who said, "Wherever you are be all there! Live to the hilt every situation you believe to be the will of God."
Jim and Elizabeth Eliot are well known for their lives of commitment and service to God in difficult places. Jim was martyred in 1956 (along with 4 of his co-workers) in Ecuador while trying to reach tribal people with the gospel of Jesus Christ. He did not live long enough to see the transformation of the people he died for. His life was guided by something he wrote in his journal in 1949, "He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose."
We are all living day to day with expectations of what 'should be' happening in our lives. Those expectations are often colored by our lack of eternal perspective. We are often more guided by selfishness than by God's desire or perspective. But God is sovereign and he overrules us just as he did the Biblical prophet Jonah and every other stubborn man or woman of God. If God wants you in "Nineveh", he will get you there!
When we recognize and surrender ourselves fully to the seasons of our lives we are better able to bear fruit for God's glory.
John 15: 4,5
"Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing."
God's life flows through us like sap inside a vine....it's often sticky, slow and messy! We want our dreams and desires to be fulfilled right here, right now but salvation is both a present reality and a process of ongoing growth, development and transformation. You have been saved, You are being saved, You will be saved!
Too often we resent the present work of God by rebelling against his authority of "seasonal development" in our lives. Our resistance is futile and actually dangerous for our "growing up" and the ultimate fulfillment of God's destiny and purpose in our lives.
Listen to the wisdom of Jesus from the gospel of John chapter 12: 23-26
"And Jesus answered them, "The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Truly, truly I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves me, he must follow me and where I am there will be my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him."
When we learn to recognize, embrace and yield to the God designed seasons of life, we bear fruit for God's glory and honor...and thus we ourselves are honored by the Father's fulfillment of his purpose for creating us.
Perhaps God's will has taken you to places you never thought you would go. Right now you might be in a winter season of the soul... listen to this.
"Grace grows best in the winter." ~ Samuel Rutherford
Perhaps you are going through a winter season of the soul. All seems dark and cold. All that has supported and nourished you seems to have left you alone and feeling abandoned. Winter doesn't last forever. While you wait, the seeds of your future are being protected and prepared for the spring that will surely come. This season is a time for reflection and prayer. Listen for the Father's voice.
Every season that God has us in presents both challenges and blessings. As the wisdom of Solomon reveals to us in Ecclesiastes, we must understand that this is God's way of revealing himself in us and through us in this life of pilgrimage.
Don't resist God's times and seasons for your life. His grace is most fully realized and enjoyed when we place our head upon his chest like the apostle John at the last supper. You can trust him.
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