So I'm typing this at 10am overlooking a small harbour on our island; its 30' celcius with 90% humidity. Between typing and swatting off some strange green or blue unknown bug, there's been something on my mind since late last year (2018...still hard to believe that 2018 is last year!). We made our final plans to come to Australia in early September and as details began coming in, there were the usual challenges of discerning a budget, navigating an overseas flight and culture/time change but for the most part our spirits began to rise as we imagined spending a portion of winter Down Under. We also looked forward to the rare experience (for most people) of taking a sabbatical, I know there are few professions that allow something like this or even value its importance and so in a way the sabbatical date (Dec.30) became a bit of a marker to get to. Four months of planning and anticipation would seem like a very long time as summer drifted into a lazy (wet) fall and then abruptly torn asunder by the awakening of winter...but all the time looking forward to the sun, beaches and the bevelled British accent of my Aussie friends. Its funny how you can withstand challenges and trials anew if you know a break (or an end) is in sight, you have an ability to push and sacrifice afresh. Throughout the season though, the verse from James 4:13-14 was hanging in the back of my mind:
"Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will travel to such and such a city and spend a year there and do business and make a profit.” Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring — what your life will be! For you are like vapour that appears for a little while, then vanishes.
Instead, you should say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” But as it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil."
Perhaps James was inspired by Luke 12 where Jesus tells a parable of a rich man who makes a lot of money and wonders what to do with his great riches-so he builds more barns and stores his wealth all the while telling himself to sit back, eat, drink and be merry. But the Lord comes to him and says 'you fool, for this very night your life will be demanded of you and what will become of your riches?'
We are but a vapour. Hard questions and hard words...but they penetrate don't they?
Around the time of our preparations a friend of mine pointed me towards another blog from another family in Winnipeg going on a very different journey. We had never met but we travelled in similar social circles. A young father around my age was diagnosed with bladder cancer in June and in the fall was in the throws of battling for his life. His wife began a blog that we would soberly follow; Shonet and I would read, cry, pray, read some more and then wonder. I would wonder--why. Why do I get to on a trip with my family, plan it for months (...tucking money away for years), enjoy complete health, only complaining about how my kids are outgrowing their clothes. Why is there a family, similar to mine, following Jesus and genuinely desiring to make a difference in the world--now having to answer some of the darkest questions of our existence--long before an expected time? Why do my children, who battle with a glorified sense of entitlement get to anticipate holding koalas and getting sun burnt when kids the same age will be processing the slow death of their father and transitioning into a new painful reality? Why?
I have no answers. But its given a perspective of our time away that not much else could.
This young father passed away in January shortly before we would fly to Australia; as our family would soon board a plane to a season of adventure, their family would enter a world of new discoveries of sorrow, grief and weariness. In her writings, his grief stricken wife and mother of his children would share how the family is leaning upon Jesus for strength just to make it through the next hour.
So I wonder why? Reading Narnia has been helpful, Aslan (the Christ character) tells the children when they ask similar questions: 'We're only told our own stories, not someone else's'. So there will be a mystery in this yet comfort that the Lord knows each story very well.
Job asked why he suffered...and was only given more questions; Paul asked 3 times why he suffered and was told God's grace will be sufficient. We're not told why. But we are told what we are to do--Jesus' admonition for us who are near those who are grieving is to weep with those who are weeping--for that is all that is required and is right--the church we're attending at the moment talked about this for those impacted by the New Zealand shootings; and secondly live life with a constant dripping of gratitude that won't turn off--gratitude for toes that work, tongues that taste, eyes that see, fingers that type, brains that comprehend, voices that laugh (and cry), skin that replenishes itself, loved ones to hold and be held by...let the list go on.
We're simply a vapour, a puff of smoke...here for a while and then gone. I am a fool if I think I am entitled to a warm weather life with no troubles. Our lives will be demanded of us in the most inconvenient of times, it seems wise to plan and prepare for that journey trusting the only One who can walk with us on the lonely road through death (Psalm 23). In the meantime, be thankful and mindful for what we are given to do for today, for today is all you and I have.
This has been a helpful, sobering perspective for us on this little adventure.
"Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will travel to such and such a city and spend a year there and do business and make a profit.” Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring — what your life will be! For you are like vapour that appears for a little while, then vanishes.
Instead, you should say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” But as it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil."
Perhaps James was inspired by Luke 12 where Jesus tells a parable of a rich man who makes a lot of money and wonders what to do with his great riches-so he builds more barns and stores his wealth all the while telling himself to sit back, eat, drink and be merry. But the Lord comes to him and says 'you fool, for this very night your life will be demanded of you and what will become of your riches?'
We are but a vapour. Hard questions and hard words...but they penetrate don't they?
Around the time of our preparations a friend of mine pointed me towards another blog from another family in Winnipeg going on a very different journey. We had never met but we travelled in similar social circles. A young father around my age was diagnosed with bladder cancer in June and in the fall was in the throws of battling for his life. His wife began a blog that we would soberly follow; Shonet and I would read, cry, pray, read some more and then wonder. I would wonder--why. Why do I get to on a trip with my family, plan it for months (...tucking money away for years), enjoy complete health, only complaining about how my kids are outgrowing their clothes. Why is there a family, similar to mine, following Jesus and genuinely desiring to make a difference in the world--now having to answer some of the darkest questions of our existence--long before an expected time? Why do my children, who battle with a glorified sense of entitlement get to anticipate holding koalas and getting sun burnt when kids the same age will be processing the slow death of their father and transitioning into a new painful reality? Why?
I have no answers. But its given a perspective of our time away that not much else could.
This young father passed away in January shortly before we would fly to Australia; as our family would soon board a plane to a season of adventure, their family would enter a world of new discoveries of sorrow, grief and weariness. In her writings, his grief stricken wife and mother of his children would share how the family is leaning upon Jesus for strength just to make it through the next hour.
So I wonder why? Reading Narnia has been helpful, Aslan (the Christ character) tells the children when they ask similar questions: 'We're only told our own stories, not someone else's'. So there will be a mystery in this yet comfort that the Lord knows each story very well.
Job asked why he suffered...and was only given more questions; Paul asked 3 times why he suffered and was told God's grace will be sufficient. We're not told why. But we are told what we are to do--Jesus' admonition for us who are near those who are grieving is to weep with those who are weeping--for that is all that is required and is right--the church we're attending at the moment talked about this for those impacted by the New Zealand shootings; and secondly live life with a constant dripping of gratitude that won't turn off--gratitude for toes that work, tongues that taste, eyes that see, fingers that type, brains that comprehend, voices that laugh (and cry), skin that replenishes itself, loved ones to hold and be held by...let the list go on.
We're simply a vapour, a puff of smoke...here for a while and then gone. I am a fool if I think I am entitled to a warm weather life with no troubles. Our lives will be demanded of us in the most inconvenient of times, it seems wise to plan and prepare for that journey trusting the only One who can walk with us on the lonely road through death (Psalm 23). In the meantime, be thankful and mindful for what we are given to do for today, for today is all you and I have.
This has been a helpful, sobering perspective for us on this little adventure.
Love you guys
ReplyDelete