The Journey of Believing 'All'

(Photo: Michael Kroul @unsplash.com)

A first-person version of Mark 9:14-24…

"I will never forget the day when I began to understand what 'all' really means. Over the years, I had come to trust God for some things, a lot of things, in fact—and He was faithful to me over and over again. But there were just some things, I don’t know, I just had a hard time believing for even though I wanted to believe with all my heart. It was my boy. I loved him so and he was a mess, tormented by who knows what ever since he was little. Nobody could help him. Whatever it was, it seemed to make him worse as he grew older and I was desperately afraid I was going to lose him soon unless there was a miracle. So I brought him to the one I had heard had done many amazing things and who claimed to be the Son of God. When I arrived, though, He was still up on a mountain with a couple of his disciples so I brought my boy to others who were with him—but they couldn’t do a thing, either. My heart sank and I was ready to go home, hopeless.

And then the Son of God showed up and wanted to know what the fuss was all about. When I tried to explain, He seemed to be very frustrated with the whole bunch of us—even His own disciples—for our lack of faith. Well, maybe some of the others were faithless, but I still had some. I was here, wasn’t I? I just didn’t have 'all.' And then in compassion, the Son of God called me and my boy to come near, and whatever it was that was tormenting my son suddenly reacted in the worst way yet when we were standing with Jesus. I began to panic and my heart felt like it was beating out of my chest in fear, and all the while I wanted to scream, 'don’t just stand there, do something!' And instead, He asked a question that I figured that God and the Son of God would already know: 'How long has this been happening?' What?! I realized afterwards, though, that the Son of God was not looking for information—He was looking into my heart and my feeble of walk of faith to strengthen me, and heal my boy.

And when I explained what had been happening (even though I now know He already knew), I pleaded with what little faith and hope I had left within me: 'Have mercy on us and help us, if you can.' And He said...

'What do you mean, ‘If I can’?’ Anything is possible if a person believes.' 

He was speaking these amazing words and I was watching my boy in horrible pain and so I blurted out loudly: 'I do believe, but help me overcome my unbelief!' And it was the God-honest truth of how I felt at the moment. And it’s still the God-honest truth of how I can still feel from time to time when the pressure of life closes in. I think that’s what the Son of God was after—the God-honest truth of what was in my heart so He could strengthen it. But praise God, praise God, praise God, He proved to me He can do all things—He touched my boy and he became a normal kid again with no more suffering, no more tormenting, no more whatever it was that was making his life miserable!

Many years later, I still have those days when I think, 'I do believe, but help me overcome my unbelief!' But the longer I walk with the Jesus, who I now know and believe is truly the Son of God, those days are fewer and fewer as I get to know Him more and more and as I remember to lean hard into what I’ve experienced over and over again is true: all things are indeed possible with God. Great is His faithfulness! And on those days when I forget that, when my faith gets strained or weary, or for when I’m facing another situation that makes my heart feel like it’s pounding out of my chest, I wrote down some words that I’m tucking away for frequent reference: 

You are not “the Big Guy”

You are not “the Man upstairs”

You are not just a “higher power”

You are not just a lord to be respected but

Lord of Lords—You are the plural of ALL majesty!

You alone are ALL power, ALL authority

You alone are ALL-sovereign

You alone are maker of ALL heaven and earth

You alone are master and ruler over ALL-everything

And You alone own everything—and because I believe in You, that means I belong to You, too

I can cast ALL my cares upon You—ALL of them

The whole world—my whole world—even today, is in Your hands

And You love ALL that is Yours (even me at my worst)

And You care for ALL that is Yours

And You alone are my only ALL-in-ALL protector, and provider, and Savior, and oh so much more

You never change—from everlasting to everlasting, You are Adonai!

Lord of Lords—a plural of ALL majesty!

You are…worthy of ALL my praise, ALL my worship, ALL my life, for ALL of my days."

“The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in Him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.”

—Colossians 1:15-17, NIV

A Little Bit of Dynamite

 

Last year's Easter sunrise across the street from my church.

“He is not here—He is risen, just as He said He would.”
—Matthew 28:6, Phillips Translation

Barely awake this morning, I looked out the window at the emerging glow of light on the eastern horizon and found myself kinda-sorta singing the first verse of that great Easter hymn: “Christ the Lord is risen today! Hallelujah!” And it stopped me in my tracks, maybe because I was struggling to remember all the words or maybe because working with words and finding the right words to say things clearly has been my lifelong career. I was suddenly reminded once more of one of the littlest throw-away words of all time in that hymn, one that explodes with impact this Resurrection Day morning:

“Is.” 

It may be a tiny word but underestimate its power at your own risk. Because as that old hymn declares, “Is” is not a has-been, used-to-be, might-be kind of word. Dictionaries state matter-of-factly that “is” means “to be” or better still, “to be present,” but for we who Believe, that means “is” is everything! “Is” is active. It is right now and relevant. It’s an awesomely amazing little word that reminds our life-numbed minds this morning that…“God’s not dead He IS surely alive!”

“Yes, but tell me again, how can I know for sure?” 

Because from before the beginning of time, God has said about Himself: “I AM the Lord! That IS My name!” (Isaiah 42:8, Amplified). From the garden tomb on a morning like this, the angel tells startled and confused visitors looking for Jesus: “He isn’t here! He IS risen from the dead, just as He said would happen!” (Matthew 28:6, New Living Translation). And in the last chapters of history, God assures us nothing has changed about Him and never will, and best of all that this story is not over: “I am the Alpha and the Omega—the beginning and the end,” says the Lord God. “I am the one who IS, who always was, and who IS still to come—the Almighty One!” (Revelation 1:8, New Living Translation)

And because “Christ, the Lord, IS risen today!,” I can rest in knowing He still reigns over this (crazy) world He created and that He is ever interceding for me (Hebrews 7:25), every single day. He’s not a far-off, too busy with other things, “try-to-go-figure-it-out-yourself-and-call-Me-if-you-need-anything” God, but the One and only “Emmanuel—God with us” 24/7 God. And whenever we need reminding, convincing or reassurance that “is” really means what it says it means, that little stick of dynamite has some pretty amazing synonyms that dictionary writers think are just interesting similar words but to every Believer—especially on Resurrection Sunday—are fire to the bones:

The Lord…abides

The Lord…acts

The Lord…breathes

The Lord…continues

The Lord…does

The Lord…endures

The Lord…holds

The Lord…inhabits

The Lord…lasts

The Lord…lives

The Lord…moves

The Lord…obtains

The Lord…persists

The Lord…prevails

The Lord…remains

The Lord…rests

The Lord…stands

The Lord…stays

Which is why one of the best-known Bible passages of them all will always get us recalibrated, well beyond Easter:

“The Lord IS my Shepherd. I will have everything I need.”

(Psalm 23:1, NLV)

"What?!"

 

Early spring along the shore, Cunningham Pond.

“Obedience to God is the pathway to the life you really want to live.”—Joyce Meyer

The t-shirt is right: “Life is good.”

But loving in it can be hard.

Serving others in it can be hard.

Praying throughout it can be really hard.

“Follow Me” every day in it can be—no, is—definitely hard.

Why should something so good be so difficult?

Because in the natural, following Jesus every day is a war... of wills.

Though everything deep within desires to do so, the mere idea of obeying God can at times seem crazy, foolish, or it simply doesn’t make sense.

The war often prompts a response that sounds like: “Yeah, but…” or “But what if?…” or “Maybe another time.”

It’s kind of like being told by Jesus to go downtown, walk up to a total stranger and say you’re borrowing a couple of his really nice donkeys simply because Jesus needs to borrow them.

“What?!”

Until a seemingly throw-away verse preaches:

“The two disciples did as Jesus commanded.”—Matthew 21:6

And what followed was a time of great joy, shouting and dancing, and a parade filled with waving palm branches and a red carpet of cloaks for Jesus and two donkeys. Not only that, it was a fulfillment of a 500-year-old prophecy about a king and a donkey that would eventually bring Life to all—even those along that parade route—who would believe. “Behold, your King is coming to you!” (Matthew 21:5). Forget the duck boats, marching bands or rose-decorated floats—this was by far the grandest entrance by anyone in the history of the world!…(it gets even better, just wait!).

Every Palm Sunday, it’s that joyous processional we tend to remember. But maybe the story of the guys and the donkeys is just as important. It’s a much-needed reminder that on this Walk of ours, we can never go wrong by obeying the Word, even when it doesn’t seem to make sense. “What?!”

Sometimes, you just have to fight (against yourself) for it.

“We’re not called to live by human reason. All that matters is obedience to God’s Word and His leading in our lives. If God says go, we’ll go. If He says stay, we’ll stay.

When we are in His will, we are in the safest place in the world.”

—Brother Yun, from “The Heavenly Man”

By Name

April arrives at Cunningham Pond.

Here it is the first Sunday morning in April, ice is out of the ponds and spring birds are singing up a storm, and for some reason, the Christmas story is speaking loudly…

“The angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David, and the virgin’s name was Mary.”—Luke 1:26-27

It is speaking loudly right now because it’s a reminder for all those times and all those days when you wonder if God even knows where you live. When you wonder if He notices us or hears our prayers—especially the ones we lift up over and over and over again—or if maybe instead we’re all part of this one grand heavenly “hey you down there” Church. Super-Christians can stop faking it, because we've all been there. When you’re in the midst of "one of those days, "it’s easy to think He kinda notices who we are but that maybe we’re just another familiar face in the crowd. 

But this beloved passage from the Christmas story, one that often goes in one ear and out the other during the holidays, is speaking loudly on an April Sunday because it’s a reminder that...

God not only loves all that He has made, when He has a plan and the timing is right, it is never a random act of kindness, and it is always personal…

The angel wasn’t just any one of the gazillions in the army of the heavenly hosts.

God picked one by name: Gabriel.

And Gabriel wasn’t just sent to roam anywhere on the earth to see what he could see, he was on a specific assignment that had a name: Redemption.

And Gabriel could have gone to any one of a million places in all the world but God sent him to a specific land that had the name Galilee and then not to just to any old town or village but like an arrow hitting its target in an unlikely place with the name Nazareth…

"The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood.”—John 1:14 Message

...But come on, there were probably hundreds if not thousands of virgins in that town.

And yet God sent Gabriel to just one who was betrothed to a man by the name of Joseph.

Well, gee, there were probably thousands of Josephs in that town, too.

But nothing random here—Gabriel had his eyes on one Joseph out of a thousand who alone was of King David’s and the Messiah’s line...the Name above all names.

And wait…not just betrothed to any nameless, faceless young girl but to a virgin named Mary.

It is all speaking loudly right now because the common denominator in all of this is that every thing and every place and every person had a name. And Jesus is the same, yesterday, today and forever. Nothing random. Never a “hey you down there” or “oh listen, whatshisname is praying again.”

There are few things more meaningful or loving or fueling feelings of worth as when someone calls us by name. And the best and most important Someone in all of history always does. Never forget. Never ever forget…

“Look at the myriad of stars and constellations above you.

Who set them to burning, each in its place?

Who knows those countless lights each by name?

They obediently shine, each in its place, because God has the great strength and strong power to make it so.

Why, then, do you, Jacob, inheritors of God’s promise, you, Israel, chosen of God—

Why do you say, “My troubled path is hidden from the Eternal; God has lost all interest in My cause”?

Don’t you know? Haven’t you heard?

The Eternal, the Everlasting God, the Creator of the whole world, never gets tired or weary.

His wisdom is beyond understanding.

God strengthens the weary and gives vitality to those worn down by age and care.

Young people will get tired; strapping young men will stumble and fall.

But those who trust in the Eternal One will regain their strength.

They will soar on wings as eagles.

They will run—never winded, never weary.

They will walk—never tired, never faint.”

—Isaiah 40:26-31, Voice