Father's Day had extra-special meaning for my family and me this year. It was the first anniversary of my hospitalization last summer. Since then, I've been asked a gazillion questions... "What is God showing you through all this?" "Why do you think He is allowing this to happen?" "How has this changed you?" "How will this affect your ministry?"
Good questions all.
Most of the time, my best response is simply, "I don't know." But I can tell you this: I sure am glad to be here. My eyes have been opened to a whole new world...
And I'm not alone. Miracles walk among us. If we think about it in terms of Amy Grant's 80's song, "Angels Watching Over Me," I'll bet we all have plenty of saved-from-the-brink-of-death stories waiting to be told to us in heaven.
I have a pastor friend up in North Dakota. I first met him about three years ago, just a couple years after he'd suffered a massive stroke. His doctors doubted he'd ever walk again. (God proved them wrong.) We hit it off quickly, cracking each other up with our mutually-appreciated sarcasm. Sitting in his car at Bismarck's version of a Bob's Big Boy drive-in, he told me something I'll never forget...
He said it was a good thing we'd met after his stroke, saying that prior to it, he could really be a "jerk" at times, driving people nuts with his need to control the vertical and the horizontal. He shared how surviving that stroke gave him a brand-new perspective on virtually everything in his life.
I can relate.
I'm not claiming some newfound immunity to my own periodic episodes of jerk-ish-ness. (Don't I wish.) But I do think my medical challenges have made me a better man in Christ. Just ask Deanna... she's been my best friend for a long time, but this past year, she's fallen more deeply "in like" with me.
Marriage 101... Loving each other: Required. Liking each other: Optional... Both: Oh baby!!!
I'M NOT TRYING to milk this medical stuff. As I said in my first email after the hospital, "I have no intention of this forum becoming some self-sympathizing litany of my moment-to-moment medical drama--- puleeeaaase! (As if I'm the only one facing challenges...)"
BUT I'M BRINGING it up, yet again, because for this walk-across-America dude, it's relevant...
Those of you following the saga of my Looking Back; Looking Forward; Looking Foolish series are aware that I pulled the plug on its third-and-final installment about a month ago, citing reasons which I would "soon explain." So here's that explanation...
Simply put, I'm not completely sure how much prayerwalking I can handle right now, physically.
Deanna and I, along with all our advisors, walk by faith. We also hope to walk in wisdom. As I was about to "go public" a month ago with that third-installment, blueprints which I still believe may stretch another 10,000 miles across our country, I felt a check in my spirit, later confirmed in the natural.
I'm not discouraged; I'm confident... both in His ways that are higher than my ways, and in His faithfulness to finish this good work He has begun in us. Physically, I feel good most of the time. I'm strong and I'm fit--- in even better shape than before all this happened. So please hear me clearly now...
- Our "illustrated sermon" of Repentance in Unity, by God's Spirit, is changing lives. Thus, I fully expect to be prayerwalking this nation, and possibly many others, for decades to come.
- This fundamental need for revival at virtually every level of the western-world's resource-rich but power-poor culture of Christianity has become the missional passion of my life.
- Never before have I seen our travels, albeit limited this last year, bear such sweet, bountiful and glorious fruit.
- The gathering-of-signatures on our National Prayer of Repentance is heading into its homestretch... slotted for fall 2011. If the Lord tarries, we will have been gathering signatures on this "common liturgy" of repentance for over 10 years.
- Part-and-parcel to the "big finish" of delivering these prayer-letters to the White House, will be the publication and dissemination of the Apology from the Pulpit, a "spiritual addendum" to our prayer from ministerial leaders as an open letter to the American people.
I JUST NEED A LITTLE MORE time in my prayer-cave to work out all the details...
"And He said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong."
(2 Corinthians 12:9-10)
Deanna and I thank God for you always. Your faithfulness and generosity in prayer and support, even throughout this last year, has been like a cool drink of water on a hot day. Your love humbles us.
Your brother in faith and wisdom,
Tom
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