Thursday, April 06, 2006
Enough Already!
March was indeed a blur for me and Rachelle. It's still hard to believe all that happened and where we are. Rachelle and I are still experiencing God's goodness in little ways, even amidst continued craziness. Allow me to recap (and this is not meant as a pity party):
March 6: My drug eruption begins and is in full swing by March 12. I'm out of work from March 15-27.
March 23: On our return trip from Yale, Rachelle becomes sick with flu-like symptoms, which are not conducive to our 2-hr train ride and flight home.
March 25ish: Anna Scott and Will show signs of a cold. ASM has a wheezy cough. Will gets an eye & ear infection.
April 3: My maternal grandmother's health deteriorates. Her health has been in decline since a stroke from last year.
April 4: Rachelle's right eye is irriated. It turns out that a small piece of glass was lodged on her cornea, which our opthamologist successfully removed.
I told Rachelle that it's like we got sucker punched in March, then continue to be pummelled ("body-blow; body-blow") while down. Not sure what God is doing, but ENOUGH ALREADY!
Don't get me wrong. Rachelle and I are not shaking our fists at God. Rather, as Job did, we're expressing how we feel, with the belief and trust that God can handle it, that God will not get angry at us or become impatient with our questions. We believe that God was and is in absolute control of our situation. Why has he allowed such calamity on us? Don't know. But the alternative to believing that God is in control is to believe that he is not and therefore evil can run rampant. This latter belief is without hope and full of despair.
Interestingly, we're in the season of Lent, which is a time of preparation for Christ's atoning work on the cross and ressurection. It is a time of hope, the hope of Jesus Christ redeeming us from total despair. That hope rests on God the Father himself, is true and clings to us regardless if Rachelle or I feel like it does.
Honestly at times, that hope was blured with the severity of the situation. But it was still embracing us, and we were (and still are!) coginzant of God's goodness to us. This goodness has come in the bodily form of healing, peace to rest, food angels (to quote Rachelle), laundry angels, grass-cutting angels, baby-sitting and even daycare angels. Financially, it's been a stretch, but even here, God has provided.
How do we respond? With worship! "My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you." Job 42:5
March 6: My drug eruption begins and is in full swing by March 12. I'm out of work from March 15-27.
March 23: On our return trip from Yale, Rachelle becomes sick with flu-like symptoms, which are not conducive to our 2-hr train ride and flight home.
March 25ish: Anna Scott and Will show signs of a cold. ASM has a wheezy cough. Will gets an eye & ear infection.
April 3: My maternal grandmother's health deteriorates. Her health has been in decline since a stroke from last year.
April 4: Rachelle's right eye is irriated. It turns out that a small piece of glass was lodged on her cornea, which our opthamologist successfully removed.
I told Rachelle that it's like we got sucker punched in March, then continue to be pummelled ("body-blow; body-blow") while down. Not sure what God is doing, but ENOUGH ALREADY!
Don't get me wrong. Rachelle and I are not shaking our fists at God. Rather, as Job did, we're expressing how we feel, with the belief and trust that God can handle it, that God will not get angry at us or become impatient with our questions. We believe that God was and is in absolute control of our situation. Why has he allowed such calamity on us? Don't know. But the alternative to believing that God is in control is to believe that he is not and therefore evil can run rampant. This latter belief is without hope and full of despair.
Interestingly, we're in the season of Lent, which is a time of preparation for Christ's atoning work on the cross and ressurection. It is a time of hope, the hope of Jesus Christ redeeming us from total despair. That hope rests on God the Father himself, is true and clings to us regardless if Rachelle or I feel like it does.
Honestly at times, that hope was blured with the severity of the situation. But it was still embracing us, and we were (and still are!) coginzant of God's goodness to us. This goodness has come in the bodily form of healing, peace to rest, food angels (to quote Rachelle), laundry angels, grass-cutting angels, baby-sitting and even daycare angels. Financially, it's been a stretch, but even here, God has provided.
How do we respond? With worship! "My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you." Job 42:5
