Join the Journey 8 – The wrong timing???

Last October/November I was convinced that God had told me that I would have died before the end of April, 2011. As April and subsequent days have passed many questions have been raised for me and the family about hearing from the Lord. There will be those who have believed for complete physical healing from the beginning, whose hopes will have been raised, whereas my prayer continues to be that God will help me, the family, church and friends grasp what He wants us all to learn through all of this. As I have said before I do believe that God can heal in dramatic physical ways, but that the absolute healing is through resurrection, because this is once and for all.

But any way back to the challenge of hearing from God!! It is first about being open to listen, which means giving time to him, even in what appear the most desperate times. Cathryn, my wife, took the boys to Spring Harvest the week before Easter and was shocked to see how thin I was on her return, this together with the pressure added by the pending end of April caused all sorts of tensions, worries, challenges to faith. Did we get the timing wrong, or did God? Was I wrong to tell Cathryn what I thought God had said last autumn? The answer to the last question is no, because it helped us get through so far. Finding God has been especially difficult for Cathryn, and yet we do believe He has, is and always will be there, ready and willing to pick us up and put us back on the path prepared, when we ask.

Only today I was reading some advice about putting time into becoming spiritually fit as well as physically fit. This is because just as physical fitness can decrease with illness, spiritual strength can grow, and this is the strength that flows from God to bring healing. I have found that once again when listening to Jesus speak His words into the storm, “Take courage! It is I! Do not be afraid!” (Matthew 14:27) and when I started crying out as Peter did, when walking on the water, “Lord save me” (Matthew 14:30), Jesus breaks in and takes those things which are beyond us and brings support both in and through the storm. For me, at this time it has meant that I have been able to listen to Cathryn’s situation and concerns and whilst feeling to an extent responsible still trust God for the future – hers, the boys, mine, wider family, friends and church.

I want to say this in the face of a funeral, which took place last Friday for one of the church deacons, Dave Hankins. It was just a few weeks after he had been preaching in the church and talking of months to live. This shocked people as they had been expecting me to go first. Cathryn, her parents and I were in the congregation and it must have been very hard for everyone there, as it was for us. It has again raised many questions re. the future, but reinforced that they are not for us to know in advance, because of God’s grace, made freely available through Jesus Christ. For Dave and all those who have gone before believing in Jesus, we share the sure and certain hope of resurrection to eternal life in Christ. We also need to put our faith in a God whose timing is never wrong, because our work for Him is never finished until He calls us from this life. He knows the needs of everyone involved and acts according to what is best for all, hard as we might find that at times…even most of the time if we are honest.

Please pray for Maggie, Dave’s wife, and their family as they mourn Dave’s passing and give thanks for his passionate life as both family man and Christian witness. The other important thing to hold on to is that we, as individual Christians, are members of God’s family, but also chosen to serve according to His purpose. I am a baton carrier for a time, but if you are reading these words, perhaps our Lord is preparing you to be one of those to carry the baton/life/light of the kingdom of God onwards. Remember that Jesus came into the world as the light of the world, and this is the light which spiritual darkness neither can, nor ever will put out. As followers of Jesus we are also called to be carriers of that same salt and light into the communities and situations He leads. It is in the powerful name and authority of Jesus, that individual Christians and the church as a whole can bring the changing love of Christ into each and every circumstance that we open to Him and that is opened to us through His preparation and PERFECT TIMING!!!