Sorry this is late. I typed something up this morning and somehow deleted it before it was published. Now there is something else that's on my heart; something all of us must face. Because of a phone call I just received, I must return to our passage from Sunday's message.
John 8:58-9:3
Jo and Robert have faced one fight after another for about two years. Those who know them know this--their challenges are inexplicable. Numerous trips to MDAnderson in Houston. Many multiple weeks in the hospital. When one finally bounces back from some bout, the other picks a new fight.
In the past two years, Jo has fought eye cancer, some cancer that forced the removal of part of her liver, and she just now called to tell me that the lump removed from her neck last week is melanoma. They are in the process of getting to Houston as quickly as possible, just as Robert apparently begins to face another battle himself.
You know what Jo, through her tears, just told me? "God will get us through it. I'm just worried about Robert." You know what Robert told me a couple of weeks ago in his hospital bed (while Jo was in Memphis for treatments)? "I don't understand why all this keeps happening; I guess God has His reason." (I have to remind you that in the middle of all this mess, probably about a year ago, I had the privilege of baptizing Robert. God is always mysteriously at work for His perfect purposes!)
Yesterday afternoon I counseled with a couple of our college students who are facing some difficult family circumstances. One of them brought up John 9:3--that God was speaking to her through the verse late last week, but that she was so concerned on Sunday that she didn't really listen to the message; however, God's word confronted her again with that verse on Monday and that she knows somehow God is going to work through this very difficult situation for His glory.
What hope do we have if not in the eternal Kingdom of God? What life do we live if not the Kingdom life on this earth? If we can't live with eternal perspective, seeing in all things the "rumors" of eternity--life is a meaningless, temporary mess of challenges faced for no reason. (Rumors is a great book by Philip Yancey that I recommend. I have a couple of copies in my office if you want to check it out.)
If, however, there is more to this life--if the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand and I can have it and live in it now, and if I can view my God as Soveriegn and my circumstances as His playground--then and only then I can really have hope.
I dare not say something trite to Jo and Robert. But I'm so thankful that their faith in God is established in such a way that they do not lose hope by focusing on the here and now. No, rather than that they simply trust God; that God wants to do something so awesome in the midst of this circumstance that everyone will have to say, "God is awesome." Without that hope, we are damned to nothing but a fleeting and futile life. With that hope, we live and breathe and enjoy Life more abundant.
