Category Archives: Learning from our past

Overloaded

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Not too long ago I was waiting at a light when a spectacular semi-truck turned in front of me. It had more tires than I’d ever seen on one vehicle, all doubles, 4 to an axle except on the cab. As it drove past, I counted: 36 wheels.

Big heavy load.All I could think of was how difficult it must be to keep that many tires in good shape simultaneously. Are they wearing properly and balanced correctly? Are their lug nuts snug? Rotating those tires must be a nightmare similar to playing Mancala with game pieces too heavy to move.

Why so many wheels?  The answer: tons of weight inside.

It made me think of all the excess weight we carry, not in pounds but in burdens. Trouble comes when we try to carry too much on only 2 wheels.

In the book of Exodus we read how Moses tried to lead a million obstreperous people through miserable circumstances. He was doing the best he could, but it wasn’t good enough. He didn’t have enough wheels to hold up his heavy load, and it was ruining him.

God saw the problem and brought Moses’ father-in-law, Jethro, to the massive Israelite camp at exactly the right time. In learning how burdened Moses was he said, “The work is too heavy for you; you cannot handle it alone.” (Exodus 18:18)

The heavy weight was redistributed to helper-judges, which then gave Moses the 36 wheels he needed to continue moving the massive group forward.

Moses leadingYears later he again found himself weighed down by the impossible burden of his role. The people were crushing him with their complaints, so once again he went to God. “I cannot carry all these people by myself; the burden is too heavy for me.” (Numbers 11:14) It was time for a new set of tires. God provided them again in the form of many able helpers, and Moses’ load was lifted.

What about our 21st century loads? More often than not we drag under our heavy burdens while trying to give the impression we’re living feather-light. When others see us bent beneath our loads and ask if they can help, we say, ”No thanks. I’m just fine.” After all, we don’t want to add to their loads. But as we learn in Scripture, if we accept the help of others, a blessing comes to them as well as to us.

Moses modeled what to do when we’re overloaded. Step 1: ask God to lighten it up. Step 2: listen for how. We’re to avoid the extremes of either asking no one, or asking many of the wrong ones, because our best burden-lifter will always be God.

“Praise be to the Lord, to God our Savior, who daily bears our burdens.” (Psalm 68:19)

Praising and Praying with Mary

Thanks and praise for peaceful sleeping at night, a direct answer to your prayers. Please pray for my increasing fatigue, that God will give rest and rejuvenation to match the need.

Still There

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Mary’s original cancer diagnosis took place the day after Valentine’s Day, February 15, 2014. Almost immediately she and Bervin began testifying to God’s ongoing work within the situation and their awareness of his constant presence with them.

Ten days and lots of tests later, Mary, Bervin, and several of their adult children met with a team of doctors to get their recommendations. It was going to be a difficult meeting at best as a handful of highly-reputed doctors explained what was happening inside Mary’s body, along with what they felt should be done about it. Whatever was said in that room would shape the weeks and months ahead.

PeacefulAmazingly, Mary wasn’t at all nervous. That’s because she knew that literally thousands of people (including strangers) were praying for God’s peace to envelop her, confident he was hearing and would deliver.

When the meeting began, with each doctor taking a turn, a remarkable drama unfolded. As Mary told it, “I’ve always been on the praying end of a crisis, but this time I was the one being prayed for. The presence of God’s Spirit in that conference room was palpable. I saw it in the behavior of the doctors and in the faces of my children.”

She went on to say, “In my 70 years, I’ve never felt the strong, literal presence of the Lord that powerfully.”

Some people feel that since we can’t see the spirit world, we can’t be sure it exists, but Mary testified otherwise. During that meeting she became aware of God’s presence in the room. “He was moving among us, and it was very real as he worked to accomplish answers to those many requests.”

She said that as she listened to the doctors, she was completely enveloped in a bubble of peace. Because of the nature of the meeting, experiencing such tranquility was completely unnatural. Surely it was God’s supernatural gift.

Absence of stressThe Lord isn’t stingy with this kind of unusual peace. He offers it to anyone who wants it, in any set of circumstances. He says, “Ask me, and then trust me to deliver it.” We don’t even need a life-and-death crisis for him to wrap us in that same unlikely peace.

Today Mary is facing a new crisis even more severe than the first. But the same supernatural benefits she experienced 9 months ago are still available to her: God is still powerfully present, and he’s still willing to answer prayer requests for his mysterious supernatural peace, right in the middle of all the negatives. (See #2 below.)

Jesus said, “The Advocate, the Holy Spirit…. will remind you of everything I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you.” (John 14:26-27)

Praising and Praying with Mary

  1. I praise God for the good gifts he continues to give, like being able to cook dinner for our local adult kids tonight, which I love to do.
  2. Please pray that when I wake up during the night, negative thoughts about what’s ahead won’t keep me from getting back to sleep.

Tantalizing Fantasizing

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Every widow friend of mine has wished her husband could come back, if only for a few minutes. We’ve all fantasized about how we would greet them, what we’d say, how we’d show love. Such a scenario is as captivating as a first date, and although we all know it can’t be, thinking about it is delicious.

howard_F2S13P-P1.tiffThis morning I was pondering the biblical Lazarus, a friend Jesus often stayed with between destinations. He enjoyed time with this pal and his two sisters, probably relaxing around a lamp-lit wooden table, telling of his travels. These four singles were close in heart and surely had fun together. Scripture twice says Jesus loved them.

When Lazarus got sick, the grieving sisters did what came naturally: they got word to Jesus. But Lazarus died before he could get there.

When Jesus finally came, Mary, Martha and a crowd of mourners had been grieving for four days. No doubt the sisters were thinking, “Oh, how we want our brother back, even for just a few minutes. He left so quickly we couldn’t even get Jesus here in time. If only we could talk with him again, hold onto him, somehow prevent his death.”

When Jesus arrived, Martha raced out to meet him with the same wish my widow friends and I have. “Jesus, you can do whatever you want! You could bring him back!” Although I haven’t met Martha, I know what she was thinking: “If you bring him back, you can heal him, and then he won’t have to die!”

But Jesus responded conservatively, reminding Martha that Lazarus would rise eventually. That wasn’t good enough for her, though. I picture her tugging on his arm, bouncing up and down saying, “Yes, yes, I know, but you know what I mean!”

Jesus calmly asked if she truly believed he was the way to heaven, and she says, “Yes, of course! I believe you! But…”

Racing back to the house, she grabs Mary and excitedly says, “Jesus is here! Hurry up!”  And it’s Mary’s turn to rush out. While weeping, she voices the same longing as Martha but in a different way. “You could have prevented this! And you should have!”

Amazingly, Jesus gave the sisters what they wanted: their brother back.

Lazarua and sistersWhat was life like for these siblings after that? Martha and Mary probably didn’t take their eyes off Lazarus, couldn’t stop asking questions. Most likely they touched him, took his hand, hugged him, told him they loved him, until he had to say, “Ok, girls. Enough already!”

I’ll bet they loved their brother with a nearly perfect love after having lost him, then gotten him back. That’s what my widow friends and I long for, too, though we know it won’t happen.

But if wives could just get that second-chance love figured out the first time around, marriages could be radical examples of what God originally had in mind for husbands and wives.

Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” (John 11:43)