Sometimes Life Hurts

Last Friday I took Joshua to a doctor's appointment. It was the routine four month check. I am happy to report that he is healthy and growing strong. A part of the four month check up is immunizations. The word immunizations sounds so much nicer than shots. The nurse came in with three syringes of various immunizations to shoot into my four month old son's legs. My job was to hold his arms and head while the nurse held down his legs and gave him the shots. He screamed a painful cry as the needle penetrated the skin. Big crocodile tears dripped down his face and then he looked at me. I am not sure what his mind is able to comprehend or how he processes his thoughts; but it seemed to be a look of "Why are you letting this happen to me?" It broke my heart. I did not want to see my child hurt. I did not want to see him in pain. I wanted to hold him and tell the nurse to keep those needles away from my baby boy. But I did not. I knew the temporary pain of receiving a shot would help him be stronger and more equipped to fight off sickness in the future.

I began thinking about that and realized it is similar to our spiritual walk with Christ. Sometimes life hurts. We go through trials, persecution, hardships, sickness, and pain. We like Joshua do not understand what is taking place and we look to our heavenly Father with a "why are you letting this happen?" attitude. Nobody enjoys pain (unless there is something deeply wrong with them), yet we all suffer pain. Nobody likes to hurt. We do not like suffering. We do not like persecution, yet we all face it. I believe the trials, persecution, and sufferings we face are making us stronger and more equipped to stand strong in our faith. They serve as a spiritual shot, an immunization, preparing us to fight against the sin that seeks to overtake us.

When the shots were finished, I picked up my son and held him close. I softly talked to him telling I love him. I sang a song to him. I let him know that he was loved. When I make it through a trial, I feel my Lord grab me and hold me close. He whispers that everything is okay. He sings over me. No, I do not hear an audible voice or feel a physical touch from God, yet I experience something much deeper. I experience an amazing renewal and transfromation that moves me closer to God.

Sometimes life hurts. It is during those times that we must learn to listen to what God is seeking to teach us. He loves us and He does not want to see us in pain, but He knows that when we overcome this temporary trial - we will receive something much greater.

Sickness

What a strange title to a blog post. Let me explain. Sickness seems to be going around our house. I was sick for a couple of weeks and when I started to get better, it hit Timothy. He is fine now, but Kellie is really sick. It is never fun to be sick, but it seems to be a part of life sometimes. I wish people did not have to get sick. I wish we could all live happy, healthy productive lives without sickness. However, we live in an imperfect world. We live in a world that is sick and diseased. We live in a fallen world.

I have learned some lessons that I think are good reminders through this season of sickness. While I did not enjoy being sick, I hated seeing my family being sick. I hate the sad look on my kids faces and I hate seeing them hurt. I hate seeing my wife struggle with the most basic of tasks due to sickness. I wish I could take it from them. I wish I had the ability to take their sickness upon myself in order for them to be free of the sickness.

I believe God has the same feelings in regard to us. We are His children. He hates to see us suffer from the sickness in our lives. Although I believe he never intended for us to get sick, we live with sickness in our lives. This sickness is much deeper than a cold, flu, or even cancer. We live with a sickness in our souls. We are in need of someone to take this sickness away. This sickness affects our families, our relationships, our lives. This sickness of sin creates a vacuum that separates from our Father. This spiritual cancer penetrates our hearts and we become termanally ill. That is until a cure is found.

The good news for us is that Jesus is the cure. God saw our sickness. He observed our pain. He looked at the tears in our eyes. He saw our hopeless situation and he responded. He sent His Son to be our cure. Jesus took our spiritual sickness and carried it to the cross. He is the cure to our soul's diseases. He is the perfect remedy to our sinful hearts. His name is Jesus - and He is our healer!

The Reset Button

There is something I love about video games. (Yes, I am 30 years old and still play video games.) Although I am impressed with the graphics and realistic special effects in many video games, that is secondary to me. The thing I love about the video game is that if I mess up, I can hit the reset button. I can actually begin the quest in the game and if I make a mistake, I can push reset and the game starts over like I never made the mistake.

Do you ever wish life had a reset button? Failed the test - push reset. Say something you regret - push the reset button. The daily pace of life is getting too much to handle - push reset. The new year means a new start, but we know that just because the calendar says January and the year has changed from 2007 to 2008, we do not forget what happened last month or last year. But the wonderful reality is that in Christ, we have a reset button. He gives us a new start. A new life. The old is gone and we are made new. God hits the reset button . Now, that is good news.

Seasons of Change

It seems that life is all about change. Things change over the course of a lifetime. The shows I loved as a child no longer come on television. Those that do, I no longer enjoy like I did as a child. The music I used to love sounds cheesy - even the word cheesy is outdated. Remember how it it used to be cool to say words like "rad," "dude," and "narly." Or is it Gnarly? Anyway, things change. society changes, culture changes, attitudes change, the status quoe changes. There have been many changes in our lives lately. Adopting Drew from Ethiopia was a major change in our life. We moved from Memphis to Sallisaw. Kellie and I both have new jobs. Drew and Timothy attend different schools. Things have changed over the last year. Even since we have been in Sallisaw things have changed. The church we are working with has changed from one traditional service to a traditional and an emerging service. I began coaching soccer. Soccer is now over. Things have changed. We have one more major change coming into our lives. We are expecting a baby. Kellie is due on May 27. Isn't life fun! We are excited about the new addition to our family. We know that it will be a change, but we are excited about the change and look forward to all the exciting adventures that life has in store. Please pray for our family. These are positive changes, but there have been many in a short time and that adds extra stress to our lives. Thank you so much for your continued support.