Chisel Please

Some thoughts , like the one I am experiencing about peace need to be memorialized because they spring from other worlds. A permanent record seems appropriate, but where is that place. The famous have stone monuments which are maintained by institutions spanning the generations. What about the common man's revelations from the throne of God? Is the peace and mercy felt in the face of cancer returned after the big operation worthy of consideration by generations yet unborn? Perhaps it is a story that is not learned by hearing. For it is recorded for all to hear in the Ancient Book breathed by the Creator Himself. That is where I first learned of the possible intervention by the Creator in the lives of men.

But I must say hearing about the peace in time of tribulation and knowing the peace deep within the soul are far apart. As I live through the many years I understand that logic and knowledge about so many of life's events is very shallow, yea ignorant of knowing the event from within the real experience.

I remember one epic lesson in this vain as I became a father for the first time. Having studied family and children for years and having vicariously experienced the joy and love a parent has for a child, I thought I knew the emotion one feels for their own offspring. After all, I had a close-knit family and loved my parents. How different could the reverse attachment be? I was warned of my lack of understanding by my Christian brother, Mike Stevenr who became a father several months before me; but discounted his testimony (as I frequently did many of his statements!) This time he spoke profound truth. I had no clue of the true emotion until the moment of her birth.

In an instant I learned for the first time, what was the meaning of agape love. I learned from Rachel Catherine Nelson the attachment that was deep and lasting. A love so strong as to prompt me to think I would gladly sacrifice my life, fortune and future to give her a chance at the very next breath. Yet, she had done nothing to merit my love. She had not given me or her mom even a smile. We loved her in a way that no words could describe.

So it is with this peace I have in the face of mortal danger from cancer that has persisted despite the radical surgery. I cannot adequately tell another of the loving arms that have not given me a chance to fear. I cannot explain adequately that I did not muster up some self-convincing thought, so peace would prevail. It is just there. I can backfill the emotion with explanations of what God, through His Spirit is doing for me; but it is an after-the-fact explanation. The peace came before the rationalization. Truly, God has gifted my mind from His loving kindness.

I can say things like Blessed be His name, Hosannah in the highest, praise Him etc. but those words seem frivolous compare to the quiet, intense warmth of the love of the Father and my brother, His Son - Y'shua the Messiah. How blessed am I to know the source from which peace and joy come.

I feel the need for a stone monument and chisel to record the words He writes on my life events.

Your Willing Servant
s.d.g.
j.j.

Measuring a life

Dr. Ben Siu - a man of God who signed his notes "Donkey serving Jesus" fashioned after the tale of the donkey colt that carried Y'shua into Jerusalem for the Triumphant Entry. The donkey was quite impressed with the crowd's adulation when the Master was on his back. The cloaks and palm leaves that made a blanket for his feet felt nice as did the crowd's shouts and praises to God for the duo as they traveled into history - as predicted by the prophets of old.
Later the donkey reentered Jerusalem without the Lord on his back, and to his dismay no one noticed him at all. He realized that all the attention he experienced before was merely because he was part of the plan to glorify Jesus.
Ben Siu, MD knew that all his fantastic accomplishments (and believe me, they were many) were nothing more than carrying Jesus into places He wanted to go and speaking the words Jesus wanted to say. Ben's humility in the face of a superior life, well-lived magnified the glory of his Savior.
Though this means little coming from a fellow servant donkey, I join Ben's Master in saying, "Well done."
How do we measure a life? Number of years? Wealth gathered? Accolades of men? Educational degrees? Even lives saved?
No - as described in Ephesians 3:10 - it is by the glory we bring to our Lord and Savior - Jesus Christ or in more Hebraic terms - Y'shua the Messiah.