Micropoem: their pain

their pain

no words

just empty-feeling

niceties

exchanged

after the service

has ended

and possibly

a small plate

of scones.

[for more Micropoems, click here]

40ish Days of Lent: Day 26

DAY 26

Today has been a really hard day for me for two reasons. One has been physical and one has been mental/emotional/spiritual.

Physically i have had a huge splitting headache for most of the day and that is not normal for me, nor has it been fun.

Mentally/emotionally/spiritually today was probably my worst day on Facebook [and maybe being in pain already didn’t help] as i got into an exchange with two people professing to be Christians on the blog post my friend wrote about abortion, who just came across so legalistically and judgementally towards my friend and then to me when i stepped in, accusing me of a whole lot of things which were not true [clearly not people who know me] and just holding so tightly on to law with what felt like a complete absence of love.

“No, I am not condoning sin. What i am saying is that whether the person sinned or not, our response to them has to be a loving one.”

And so on. That kind of stuff doesn’t usually get to me which is why i kept engaging with them for so long i think. But then i think ultimately it did and largely because of the seriously bad name they were giving to Christianity. I came so close to blocking the one guy which i rarely ever do, washing my hands and walking away from it, but deep in my heart i just have such a love and hope for people that i really just keep believing they will change and encounter God and somehow get a glimpse of His transforming Love, that i kept at it for a while.

Task: So the challenge for today is to encounter God through some pain you have.

Now for some of you this may be easy as the pain, like mine, may be in your face. Maybe it is a health issue or maybe it is the loss of someone dear to you recently or a friend who just got really bad news again concerning their health [yup, me too!]. In the midst of the current pain, instead of running from it, take some time today to focus on it and on the fact that in the midst of pain God has promised to draw near and be there. IT MAY NOT FEEL LIKE HE IS. But He is.

Psalm 34.18 ‘The Lord is close to the broken-hearted, and saves those who are crushed in spirit.’

Psalm 23.4 ‘Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; Your rod and your staff, they comfort me.’

Joshua 1.9 ‘ ⁹ Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.’

And more.

There may be some of you who are not facing any pain at the moment. I want to encourage you to either look back to a time when pain was real for you or else to think of someone you really care about who is facing some sort of pain right now. And find God within the pain.

As we observe Lent we are heading closer and closer to the time when we remember what Jesus picked up and took on, on His own accord. We know that He embraced the deepest kind of pain and separation so that we don’t have to. Let that thought direct you as you meditate through the pain.

Let Philippians 2 assist you:

⁵ In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:

⁶ Who, being in very nature God,
    did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
⁷ rather, he made himself nothing
    by taking the very nature of a servant,
    being made in human likeness.
⁸ And being found in appearance as a man,
    he humbled himself
    by becoming obedient to death—
        even death on a cross!

[For the next post, day 27 of this Lent Observance, click here]

jARS of cRACKEd

“i believe Lord, help me overcome my unbelief.” [Mark 9.24]

a verse i am really drawn to in the Bible that falls nicely alongside my life themesong of ‘there must be more than this’ – the knowledge that God can do it, but will He choose to…?

and the other day, altho it’s not very CC (Christianly Correct) as i lay with my wife crying out in immense pain with the hugest of mammoth headaches to end all headaches and i prayed and cried out to God and prayed in tongues and asked and begged and pleaded and and and…

silence of the lamb.

my faith cracked. it didn’t shatter or break and i don’t not believe in God and i’m not going to walk away from being a passionate God follower or anything… but in the moment that i, we, really needed God to do something that,  for a being who can speak a universe into being in a word or breath, is the smallest kind of thing imaginable, we just didn’t see it… and i didn’t really know what to do with that, not with my wife crying out in agonising pain.

you see the theory is quite easy. it’s very easy to believe in God and speak about God and trust in God and all of that. but when you need God, you need God and it would be so very nice if He would appear in the way you would hope and expect.

‘able to do immeasurably more than all we can hope or imagine?’ – it was one headache…

Elijah witnessed one of the greatest miracles in the Bible when God sends fire down from heaven to obliterate his offering after the prophets of Baal have spent all day cring out to their ‘god’ and cutting themselves and dancing and performing, but the very next moment he is sitting in a cave feeling sorry for himself crying “kill me God, i am the only one left” and yet God had reserved 7000 somewhere else in a different cave… God’s plan was already in action.

altho to be honest, i still have largely to see the fire from heaven miracle before the “where are you God?” question… but i hear of other peoples all the time.

and so “i (do) believe Lord, help me overcome my unbelief.”