Thanks be to our Father in heaven for being so good to His
children. Thanks be to His son Jesus for coming to the world to show us how to
love. Thanks be to Jesus’ sacrifice so that we may come into relationship with
the one who made it all. Thanks be to His angels He sends to guard His
children. Thanks be to God for divinely healing us and being the ultimate
physician.
I am recovering and improving daily from the car accident on November 21st.
Every day my cuts are healing more and the swelling is diminishing. I’ve got a
bit of a limp and my left knee is sore but I believe I am healed in Jesus name.
Everyone else in the accident is healing
up from the bumps and bruises quite nicely.
To everyone who prayed for us, thank you. Seriously, thank you. There were
hundreds, if not thousands of people all around the world lifting us up after
the accident. God listened and miracles happened. Something remarkable that I
did not really even think about is that I was coughing up a lot of blood right
after the accident. I am no doctor, but my prognosis would indicate that I was
bleeding internally. However when phone
calls were made and prayers started going up around the world for my healing I
stopped coughing up blood. Miracles are nothing special to God, it is normal
routine for Him.
Those who know Jesus know the one who sent Him. We are called Jesus’ body.
Thanks be to the body of Christ who fights for their members as we strive
towards the same thing. The body unites and rallies around people. We are called
to rejoice with others in their victories and to mourn with those in grief. We
are called to fight for those who need help. I admire the phrasing that Joel
3:10 says about a transformation the body can make from one state of mind to
another.
“Beat your plowshares into swords, and
your pruning hooks into spears, let the weak say, ‘I am a warrior.'”
Everyone who took time to pray for us stopped whatever they were doing and they
used their resources (time is money) and energy to fight for us. Thank you. I have
learned the sheer power of what prayer can do. Thanks be to warriors.
Right after the accident I felt spiritually numb and I was expecting to have my
view of life radically changed overnight. I was expecting an epiphany or
revelation or breakthrough or new pattern of thinking to just happen in my mind
because of the near death experience. I was focusing on this instead of just
living life and thanking God for saving me.
Sure enough, once I started to focus on how good
He is, naturally my mind has been following new grooves of thinking. Some
things he has been teaching me:
The best thing to do with the best things in life is to give them away.
Life following Christ is simple, but not easy.
Life following Christ is upside down and backwards.
‘For Jesus did not seek out the rich and
powerful in order to trickle down his Kingdom. Rather, he joined those at the
bottom, the outcasts and undesirables and everyone was attracted to his love
for people on the margins.’ (From Shane
Claiborne’s book, Irresistible Revolution)
Christ was a young Mediterranean revolutionary who flipped the world order
upside down. First will be last, last will be first. The greatest will be the
least, the least will be the greatest. He told us to die to ourselves so they
we might live. He stressed His Kingdom is not something we get to experience
not just after we die, but we experience before we die. Life before death.
Basically when viewing the world through the eyes of Christ if something makes
no sense it makes perfect sense.
…
I am learning to be vulnerable and willing to become transparent.
Living in community requires transparency. It is hard, but so incredibly worth
it. I love the community I have become a part of. I know they will fight for me
and I am willing to fight for them as well.
I love my new friends I’ve met the past 5 months.
I am learning that it is important to love others like I love myself. I found
out how selfish I am lately, and realized I love myself a lot. I want to
channel that selfish love out to others.
…
I want to see poverty and suffering eliminated.
I want see the Kingdom of God here on earth. I want the Body, the community to
believe so much in another world that we cannot help but begin enacting it now.
I am learning that we can throw money and resources at the symptoms of poverty
all day, but the root of the matter needs to be fixed. The system needs to be
changed. As Martin Luther King Jr. put
it:
“We are called to be the Good Samaritan, but after you lift so many people out
of the ditch you start to ask, maybe the whole road to Jericho needs to be
repaved.” – Martin Luther King Jr.
…
Thanks be to knowledge and wisdom for the taking in life.
