Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Baby Ethan

I ran across a website today. It tells the story of Ben and Becky Powell and their little boy Ethan. Ethan was born on December 5, 2006 and was diagnosed with Leukemia on February 6, 2007. I cannot imagine the heartache and the emotional distress of this situation. It is truly a tremendous burden to carry. But here is the beauty of the situation Ben and Becky are Christians and just reading the posts on their website it is evident they have a tremendous faith. If fact they say "prayer works" and I believe and know it does. According to a counter on their website close to 900,000 people worldwide are praying for Ethan's healing.
Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray. Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise. Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. James 5:13-16
The Powell's believe exactly what these verses state: Prayer can bring healing to the sick. They are our brother and sister in Christ and they have come before us to intercede on their behalf. Please join us in prayer for Ethan's healing and for the comfort of his family.

You can visit Ethan's website by clicking here.

Saturday, June 16, 2007

Flood

Sorry I haven't written anything recently, but it has kind of been a dry spell as far as creative writing goes. That is until last night. It was somewhat eventful, but not as bad a it could have been I suppose. However, I have learned one thing: That the words "Urgent" and "Care" should not be allowed to be used together. I also learned something else, but more to that later.

I received an email from my wife about 6:00 last night while I was at work. She stated that she was back from her walk and had fallen and hurt her knee. I immediately called her and while her words downplayed the seriousness of the matter, her tone of voice revealed the broader scope of the situation. I told her I would be right home to look at it (one of the great things about living one mile away from work). As soon I as I saw her I could tell she was in a great deal of pain. Looking at her knee I knew we needed to have it looked at by a doctor. I then announced we were going to the ER or Urgent Care. I looked up the info on the Urgent Care center and saw they were still open so I said let's go. Leaving home the car began to run rough while stopped at red lights. Then the check engine light came on. I thought, "Ok, what else can go wrong?" We made it to Urgent Care just fine. All said we were there for about four hours.

Four hours to think and pray, think some more, play some games on my cell phone, pray, watch people, make jokes about "urgent care," pray some more. But not once did I worry. Now, I am about to let you into a secret room of my life (those of you who know me well already know this about me), but I tend to worry about financial matters. Typically, I would be thinking, "Ok, this is going to be expensive, and the car too. This is great, just great. Not just one thing but now two..." I just kept saying over and over "I trust you Father, I trust you. You will provide, you will get us through this." Then God slowly began to show us that He would take care of us.

Turns out Emily only has deep bruising of the ligament in the knee, and not a broken knee cap. It will still take some time to heal, but she'll do ok. We are praying for a speedy recovery. The car is going to be fine too. The car ran just fine on the way home, but the check engine light was still on. However, after bringing Emily home, I had to go back out to get her perscription. When I started the car the check engine light did not stay on. God is good. And yes, He did take care of us.

One of the lighter things to come from this is that the song playing on Emily's mp3 player when she went down was "Flood" by Jars of Clay. Even more so, the line she remembers playing at the particular moment was "Lift me up so high, that I cannot fall, lift me up." Ironic, coincidental, weird? Yeah, maybe.

I think The Message sums up Matthew 6:34 the best:
Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don't get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes.
Typically, I would get all worked up thinking what is going to happen next? How much are the bills going to be? How much is the car going to cost to repair? What about this? What about that? Worry, worry, worry. What happened was a life lesson from my heavenly Daddy. He was asking, "Do you trust me?"

Yes, Dad, I trust you! Thank you.