A friend asked me what my high and low was of my time here in Northeastern Pennsylvania. I know He meant in my experience as a pastor, but I’ve been in and out of the area most of my life. There are relationships that are very special to me that have grown here over decades. But as far as an experience, or a revelation, it’s the same answer. My high and low are both in the season I was fighting cancer. You can understand why that’s the low, though it goes beyond just the physical. It was already a difficult emotional time, made immeasurably worse by the alien eating my chest.
However, it was also my high, because that time taught me to put my trust in Jesus in ways I never had before. I came to realize how much of my faith was based on what others thought, and how much of my peace came from people’s approval. I am a quintessential introvert. I like being alone. But I had never known the loneliness and despair that came with the revelation that I wasn’t strong enough to deal with this because my hope wasn’t actually in God, so much as it was in what I had been told about Him. No one likes seasons of suffering. But it is in those times that we can know God to the some of the depth that He knows us. He came to me every day, to lead me wherever He knew was best. He still does.
Sometimes I still forget to live, letting my thoughts and feelings to become twisted up in frustration, fear, and unmet expectations. But it doesn’t last long. With the physical scars have come spiritual marks. They are reminders to not let today get stolen by what I don’t know, but instead to let Him show me more of Himself, and lead me into all that this day can be. And that is His invitation for you too.
“Why, my soul, are you despairing?
Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
for I will praise Him again,
my Savior and my God.”
(Ps. 42.5)
Equip Your Spirit 