The Unanswered "Why?"...

While reading through this week's prayer reflections [A Guide To Prayer For All God's People by Rueben P. Job & Norman Shawchuck] I ran across the words to a hymn that reminded me of a couple of things: 

1.) everyone will sufffer. 

2.) pain produces questions about life and God for which we will find no easy answers.   

I appreciate the author's honesty as he grapples with this reality.

When Our Confidence Is Shaken - Fred Pratt Green

When our confidence is shaken

In beliefs we thought secure,

When the spirit in its sickness

Seeks but cannot find a cure,

God is active in the tensions

Of a faith not yet mature.

Solar systems, void of meaning,

Freeze the spirit into stone;

Always our researchers lead us

To the ultimate unknown.

Faith must die, or come full circle

To its source in God alone.

In the discipline of praying,

When it's hardest to believe;

In the drudgery of caring,

When it's not enough to grieve;

Faith, maturing, learns acceptance

Of the insights we receive.

God is love, and thus redeems us

In the Christ we crucify; 

This is God's eternal answer

To the world's eternal "Why?"

May we in this faith maturing

Be content to live and die!

- S.

Prayers like butterflies...

Today's session of chaplain residency training included an interesting discussion about the purpose of prayer that raised a few questions in my mind. 

Are prayers like the proverbial flutters of a butterfly's wings, small movements that can produce a chain reaction resulting in some massive event?  

Is it possible that prayer is not God's primary instrument of intervention to enact changes in the natural order?  

Could it be that prayer is a tool of personal and corporate spiritual formation that causes a ripple effect: beginning within the people praying or receiving prayer, then moving outward into their actions, and ultimately producing significant changes that would not have happened "naturally"?  

Could it be that the real changes occur within human beings, the only agents of consciousness and free will who can act with intention in response to the circumstances of the material world?

If I pray for something that does not happen, is the prayer worthless?

- S.

 

Good morning...

I've been working up at the hospital a lot lately and reading this made me especially grateful that in just a few days I will finally get an uninterrupted weekend with my three monkey children...   

[Daddy and Son are watching cartoons on a Saturday morning.]

"Daddy, can we make some 'awfulls?"

"Yes, Son.  We can make some waffles."

[Later that morning.]

"Ok buddy, watch the light on the waffle maker.  When the light goes out, call to Daddy and I'll get your waffle started."

"Okay, Daddy."

[A couple of minutes later.]

 "Da light went off!  Daddy, da light went OFF!"

"Okay buddy, let's start your waffle."

[Daddy pours the mixture in the waffle maker and closes the lid.]

"Allright, let's give it a few minutes to finish cooking."

[Daddy moves to leave the kitchen.]

"Daddy!  Stay wif me!  Don't leave.  Stay wif me."

[Daddy moves back to the counter and the little boy leans his head against Daddy's chest while singing a song about trains who are happy and sad.  Daddy thanks God for mornings like this one.]

(Scene.)

I found this on my computer today and I am really glad I took the time to write it down as soon as it happened.  This is the kind of moment that can fade from my memory if I don't get it down on paper.  I really need to do a better job making a record of experiences like this one...  

- S. 

The Monster At The End Of This Book...

So here is my newly minted, free-standing blog, created as a copycat version of what everyone else has already been doing for a long time.  For my first entry, I offer the following article, published in "Connections," the statewide newsletter for the Baptist Hospital network in Arkansas.    

When I was a little boy, I remember my dad reading me a story featuring a character from the children's television show "Sesame Street."  It was called "The Monster at the End of This Book."  My dad now tells me that he lost count of the number of times he read to me from those pages, but it would be safe to guess it was somewhere in the hundreds.  The story is woven into my memories of childhood and it is with great delight that I can now read this storybook to my five year old son, Noah.  

This charming children's story centers on a shaggy blue haired creature named Grover as he slowly experiences a nervous breakdown caused by the title telling him that there is a monster coming at the end of the book.  Because of his fear, he goes to great lengths trying to stop the reader every time they try to turn a page.  

As the reader keeps turning pages Grover proceeds to become more and more frightened of what will happen at the end.  The big reveal comes at the story's conclusion when the final page is turned and the only one there is Grover.  What a surprise to discover that he was the only "monster" at the end of the book all along.

No matter how many times my dad read me this book, he always succeeded in making me feel anxious as we neared the end.  I would lose confidence in my knowledge of the ending and begin to suspect that maybe THIS would be the time when there really would be some terrible monster waiting on the last page of the book.  The suspense would build, we would near the conclusion, and I would become afraid, begging along with Grover for my dad not to turn the page.  

But eventually, after some reassurance and a bit of laughter, I would let go and we would read the final page together.  Without fail, I would see yet again that the only thing waiting there was the same as before: it was just Grover, the monster who had been there all along. 

At some point in our lives, all of us are faced with the monsters of sickness, evil, fear, and death .  With every day that passes, we go forward into circumstances and choices that can feel overwhelming and dangerous.  It can be difficult to exist day to day with the anxiety of the future bearing down upon us.  

And yet, the Bible tells us that through Jesus we can walk into tomorrow without fear of the monsters.  In 1 John 4:17-18 the apostle reminds us that, "By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world.  God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him."

Because of the God's love, we do not have to fear the future.  As the last page in our life is turned and we stand before God's throne of judgment, the only monster that will remain will be the one we see in the mirror.  The beauty of the gospel is that we will not stand alone or be judged guilty.  Instead, we will discover that Jesus stands with us, offering us forgiveness and loving us into unending life with the Father.  Jesus faced all of life's monsters on the cross.  The monsters were defeated.  He was resurrected.  We do not have to be afraid.  Through Jesus the Savior, our stories can have a happy ending.

- S.