This Sunday, I had the opportunity to speak on John 15:1-17.
Love as You are Loved: John 13:31-38
From this past Sunday:
Do As I Have Done to You
This past Sunday, I had the privilege of teaching from John 13: 1-20.
Getting Personal
May is Huntington’s Disease Awareness month. This month is significant to our family. Last summer, my wife Jan was diagnosed with HD. Later, we found out that both of our children and one of Jan’s sisters also have it.
HD is a genetic, fatal neurological disease for which there is no cure. Yet. If you want to find out more about it you can go to https://hdsa.org/what-is-hd/overview-of-huntingtons-disease/?
As you can probably guess, the diagnosis of a disease such as this has changed our lives. After all, since there is no cure, it will end in death. There is currently no treatment for the disease, only for the symptoms. As the disease progresses, there will be issues with memory and processing, problems with balance and movement and issues with speech and swallowing. Death is often caused by pneumonia, heart failure, choking or other complications. Depending on when the symptoms appear, the course can run from ten to twenty five years.
There are varying degrees of HD. How severe the disease will be depends on the number of “repeats” in a particular gene. The lower the number, the shorter and less severe. The threshold number is 40. That is Jan’s number. The folks with the higher numbers usually show symptoms between the ages of 30 and 50.
We are in a season of trying to settle into a new normal, with only a limited idea of what the future will look like. We know that we have to trust that our loving Father has us in his hands, and that he will be with us through whatever may come. There will be days ahead when Jan will not be able to do many of the things she once did, and there will be times of frustration and wondering.
Our children also face the unknown, but there is encouraging news for them. A number of clinical trials are showing promise, and there is a possibility of a future treatment that could effectively cure HD. We hope and pray that medical science is able to accomplish this soon.
We would appreciated your thoughts and prayers for us as we travel down this back road together.
Palm Sunday
Today we celebrated the day that Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey, surrounded by people hailing him as the Messiah. Evidently this procession was not the only one making it’s way into the city that day. The Roman governor, Pilate, was also entering Jerusalem with his forces. This was something that happened before every Jewish holiday. After all, the Romans had to remind the Jews who really was in charge.
So, you have an imperial Roman procession on one side of the city and a subversive, Messianic parade on the other side. The people shouting, “Hosanna!” as Jesus made his way along the road thought they understood what was going on. As they saw it, this man who had performed so many miracles was the promised king who would drive out the hated Gentile oppressors and restore the glory of Israel. Unfortunately, as the week unfolded, many of these same people, now disillusioned, would join in the calls for his crucifixion by those same oppressors.
Those folks were partially right. Jesus was the promised Messiah. He had come to set up a kingdom and free them from their oppression. What they didn’t realize was the nature of the kingdom. It was a kingdom that is not of this world, a kingdom that came in, not by way of overthrowing the present empire, but by the king dying at the hands of that empire. The Jews were expecting God to do things the way they expected. They didn’t understand that God rarely works that way.
I thought of how many times I’ve prayed for things and thought that God was going to answer those prayers in a certain way, either because I had jumped through a certain number of hoops to “earn” God’s blessing, or because I couldn’t think of any other way God could act. I trusted in God for the things I thought he would (or should) do. Like the Jews I followed Jesus for what I could get out of it. The funny thing is, God never seemed to do the things that I expected, yet so many things turned out in such a way that I knew the Father was taking care of me. Things were not all sweetness and light, and sometimes I questioned God about what he was doing. But I can look back on those days and see that God was there, and that he was working.
I have learned (and continue to learn) that God is not predictable. He is not someone who can be counted on to always do things a certain way. God relates to people in all kinds of ways, and we cannot tie him down to a particular plan of action. None of us can figure God out, yet he calls us into relationship with him. In that relationship we learn to trust God simply for who he is rather than for what we think he can do for us.
Be encouraged. Your Father loves you more than you know. He has given you his life and his glory. Trust the Father, even when the parade of Palm Sunday turns into the darkness of Friday.
Encouragement: John 11:1-16
This past Sunday, I had the privilege of speaking on John 11:1-16.
Update Time
Twists and turns. Turns and twists. As I travel these back roads of life, the road changes from time to time. Just like that, it can go from a smooth, well paved road to a rutted, overgrown path through a deep dark forest. Sometimes the road takes me to the top of a mountain where the vista seems to stretch out forever. Other times the way gets hard to see and I wonder if I’m even on the right path.
The road has taken another one of those twists. I haven’t gone down one of those dark, scary paths, but it seems as if I’ve come to a crossroads. The road seemed to be leading straight and level, and I thought it would last for quite a while. Now, I sit, knowing that the next stage of the journey will take me somewhere else but not knowing where that will be.
A couple of years ago, I began a position as an assistant at a small law firm. From the beginning it seemed like a dream come true. I envisioned staying there until I was ready to retire. For the first time in my working life, I enjoyed going to the office everyday. Would you like to guess what happened? Yep. I was laid off a week ago. The firm has restructured and that has left me as the odd man out. Even though I would have liked to stay there, I understand that they did what they had to do.
So, I am once again looking for work. This time, I am not as concerned as I have been at other times. I have a community around me that is supportive and helpful, and already have some possibilities to pursue. There are a few directions I could go. As far as I know, none of them will lead into the wilderness. In the meantime I will pursue the opportunities and see where they lead.
If you’ve read any of my earlier posts, you know that I tend to see things from a slightly different point of view than other folks. So it goes with this latest bend in the road. I’m actually kind of looking forward to seeing where the next stage of this journey will take me. If there is one thing I’ve learned on this trip called life, it is that my heavenly Father knows the way I take and he will take care of me.
38 Years and Counting
On this date thirty eight years ago, Jan and I were married. We have been through a lot in that time, most of it good, some it challenging, and some of it flat out bad. We have reared two children, and are grateful that they have grown into responsible adults. We have buried our parents and become the “older generation.” We have become grandparents. Not once, not twice, but three times in the past thirteen months.
We have lived in five homes in three different cities, moving from the bustle of the Washington, DC area to the more blue collar Cincinnati, Ohio suburbs, to the small, yet growing town of Rock Hill, South Carolina. We have each taught in four different schools. Jan is currently tutoring part time, and I am working as an assistant in a law office. We have spent most of our working years traveling together to the same place, and had the blessing of having our son and daughter in the same schools with us for a good bit of the time. Jan has stuck with me through the times I was without work, when we often wondered how we were going to make it and when I seriously doubted my self-worth. There were times when her belief in me was what kept me going.
I am grateful for a wife who has been a constant in my life. There has never been a time when I doubted her love for me. She has been a support and a blessing to me throughout the years. She is one of the people God has used to mold me into who I am. I am thankful for the privilege of being her husband, her companion, her love. I consider myself most blessed man on earth.
As we enter this new stage of our journey, being grandparents, and dealing with getting a bit older, I am glad to have such a wonderful woman to travel with. Jan, I love you so much more than yesterday, and so much less than tomorrow. Happy Anniversary.
Acts 23
Acts 23 is an interesting account of some of the things the Apostle Paul went through. I had the opportunity to teach from this portion of Scripture this past Sunday. You can take a listen here.