Update on my sister July 6, 2009

It’s been over a month since Kell’s car accident, and every Saturday since her operation I’ve promised myself, “this will be Correspondence Saturday! Today I’ll sit down and respond to the many phone calls, emails, texts, and Facebook messages.’ And then each Saturday comes to an end and I haven’t written a single word of thanks.

Part of it is that I feel like I used all my words up during her two-week hospital stay. Koodo says my airtime for that two weeks was over 800 minutes (with per-second billing), and over 1000 text messages were sent and received. It’s just one indication of what I think is the greater ‘problem’: there are just so many of you!

My gosh, there has been such an outpouring of love and support, it would take forever to thank you enough. So, I’m humbled to know that it’s okay that I’ve been a bit incommunicado lately.

Kelly is doing… well. I hesitate to say that simply because she still has a long journey ahead, but at the same time, she WILL make a full recovery, which is more than any of us had expected during the first few hours when we didn’t even know if she was alive or not.

I look at the footage of her being airlifted, I see the car, and I think how is my sister sill alive? It’s nothing short of a miracle in my mind.

Not sure how I managed to drive to the hospital, but I do remember calling a couple friends asking them to get people praying. As I found out later, Kell made it onto the church prayer list, as well as several Canada-wide prayer chains.

I believe so strongly in the power of prayer; I’ve seen people healed in profound ways as a result of prayer before, and I am honoured to know that so many people went to Him on Kell’s behalf… and on my own behalf, too, I know.

So many of you have asked me what you could do. Well, you did exactly what you needed to do. Gandhi puts it beautifully:

Prayer is not an old woman’s idle amusement. Properly understood and applied, it is the most potent instrument of action.

Yes, prayer is a powerful instrument of action. Prayer is the act of worshipping and appealing to the only Being who has any control in a situation that seems so out of control. I believe that as humans we have been given free will, and with that comes choice. I also believe that God honours our choices–which results in a lot of bad, but also a lot of good.

So, when we choose to pray to Him, He honours that choice and that prayer. Whether He says yes or no is up to His perfect wisdom and discernment regarding a world that once was perfect and will again be perfect but for now is not perfect. Nonetheless, I attribute much of my sister’s healing to the prayers that you chose to pray for her, and I am so grateful to those of you who said ‘yes’ to a call to powerful action.

You’re the best!

Will you pray for little John? March 1, 2009

I came across the story of this family at Stuff Christians Like. Mary Elizabeth and Meade’s twin boys, Warren and John, began having seizures several hours after birth on January 21. Little Warren went home to the King after a tough two-and-a-half week battle, and though John has stabilized a bit, they still do not know what is causing the seizures, and there is still an urgent need for prayer.

Read their story, and please join me in praying for this young family.

Being born in a stable is not convenient. December 10, 2008

Being born in a stable is not convenient.
Having your friends get beheaded and murdered is not convenient.
Living in the desert without food or water for 40 days is not convenient.
Dying on the cross, for a crime you did not commit, is not convenient.

Soooo good for me this morning! Although Bob Seger would not be my first choice. And I’d bring Roxy instead of a golden retriever. But you get the picture.

Cardboard Testimonies November 9, 2008

On Science vs. God October 19, 2008

I mentioned briefly that I was reading Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain. I’ve since finished it, and found it infinitely interesting, and a totally great read! There was one thing, however, that frustrated me, something I encounter all too often. Sacks recalls a visit from one of his patients:

What did I think, in the end, of his story, Dr. Cicoria asked me. Had I ever encountered anything similar? I asked him what he thought, and how he would interpret what had happened to him. He replied that as a medical man he was at a loss to explain these events, and he had to think of them in “spiritual” terms. I countered that, with no disrespect to the spiritual, I felt that even the most exalted states of mind, the most astounding transformations, must have some physical basis or at least some physiological correlate in neural activity.

It looks to me as though Sacks, a self-professed “old Jewish Atheist” is presenting that argument, that mind-boggling argument, that science and God cannot co-exist.

When I think of the structure of an argument, I think of the classic “a=b; b=c; therefore a=c”. After you’ve determined that, you can say things like, “we’ve established that a=c, so therefore it follows that x, y and z.”

In the case of the science vs. God argument, all the time I see things like, “Science disproves God, so therefore it follows that:
- You can’t believe in science and God
- Truly intelligent people shouldn’t believe in God
- God / faith / spirituality / religion has no place in academia
- etc.”

Well, with no disrespect to people like Sacks (and I am fully convinced that he in particular is probably a genius), but how did we manage to conclude that God and science can’t co-exist, when there is so little, if anything, to support that conclusion?

Am I missing something here? If supporting evidence exists, would someone point me in the right direction?

I find it shocking that people as brilliant as Sacks can make such assertions without really backing them up, especially when they are so concerned with backing things up with evidence. It’s ironic indeed that I don’t see any convincing evidence, and yet the so-called lack of evidence seems to be one of the qualms held against God-based belief systems.

Here are some thoughts:
- Why would God not use earthly systems and materials to create? Why wouldn’t He choose to determine rules and laws about how things work here on earth? And why wouldn’t he make things discoverable to us?

- One of the names of God is Father. Like a proud parent, I believe God delights in us discovering our world and how things work, even if it takes us a really, really long time sometimes.

- Science and human discovering, as far as I’m concerned, further affirms God’s character as shown in Scripture. God gave us brains for a reason. If He wanted a bunch of mindless drones worshipping Him, He wouldn’t have given us the capacity to seek, question, push, discover and then choose to believe something, to believe in Him, and love Him by our own free will.

- Just because science can prove something doesn’t mean it is not from God. When did people start subscribing to that fallacious notion? I have to admit I can’t quite wrap my head around it.

- A cool example: Recent examination of the Shroud of Turin has produced an amazing hypothesis–that Jesus may have been raised using radiation. How cool is THAT???? That God would use something that we are now learning more and more about and using in our own healing therapies, to perform the greatest miracle and exhibition of love in the entire universe?

- I think the more we learn about from science, the more we are exposed to some of the amazing things that God has created, from laws to rules, energies to matter. What I DON’T think we learn from science is that God doesn’t exist.

I think perhaps people confuse the idea of “science means that there is no God” with “science means that we have no need for God“. That latter is also a disturbing fallacy, but we’ll save that for another time.

Anyway.

Just one reason why I love Jen Lemen March 29, 2008

So there’s this woman named Jen Lemen.  I don’t know much about her, except for what she writes in her blog.  I can’t even remember how I stumbled upon it in the first place, I only know that she is a source of great encouragement and inspiration for me.  You know that poster with the cat that says, “Hang in there, baby”?  I imagine the person who created that concept is a lot like Jen Lemen.  Optimistic, wise, and just oozing with love, except oozing is such an unpleasant sounding word.  Radiating and percolating and flowing with love. Especially dear to me of late is this post.  Particularly:   

He leaned back now, letting his hands swing into the air like a preacher giving a sermon. “People have lost their minds. We forget we’re part of one family, that we’re all connected.” He put the emphasis on forget and family, driving the point home. “We act like we don’t belong to each other, like we’re not brothers and sisters.”

Heck YES. 

Thinking about Denominations March 27, 2008

Last night.  Final Alpha session of this season.  Topic: What About the Church?   Nicky touched on the issue of denominations, which always get the wheels turning, agonizingly slow, in my wee brain.

 

This pretty much sums it up for me:

 

A tourist came upon another tourist in the middle of the Golden Gate Bridge. They both were enjoying the view – just watching the sunset.

One looked at the other one and said, “What an awesome God.”  Guy number one turned to him and said, “You a Christian?” The second guy said, “Yes, I am a Christian.”  Guy number one said, “So am I,” and they shook hands.  

Guy number one said, “Are you a liberal or a fundamental Christian?” Guy number two said, “I am a fundamental Christian.” Guy number one said, “So am I” and they smiled and nodded to each other.  

Guy number one said, “Are you a covenant or dispensational, fundamental Christian?” The second guy said, “I am a dispensational, fundamental Christian.” The first guy said, “So am I,” and they slapped one another on the back.  

Guy number one said, “Are you an early Acts, mid-Acts or late Acts, dispensational, fundamental Christian?” Guy number two said “I am a mid-Acts, dispensational, fundamental Christian.” Guy number one said, “So am I,” and they agreed to exchange Christmas cards each year.  

Guy number one said, “Are you an Acts 9 or 13, mid-Acts, dispensational, fundamental Christian”? Guy number two said, “I am an Acts 9, mid-Acts, dispensational, fundamental Christian.” Guy number one said, “So am I,” and they hugged one another right there on the bridge.  

Guy number one said, “Are you a pre-trib, or post trib, Acts 9, mid-Acts, dispensational, fundamental Christian”? Guy number two said, “I am a pre-trib, Acts 9, mid-Acts, dispensational, fundamental Christian.” Guy number one said, “So am I,” and they decided to exchange kids for the summer. 

Guy number one said, “Are you a 12 in or 12 out, pre-trib, Acts 9, mid-Acts, dispensational, fundamental Christian?” Guy number two said, “I am a 12 in, pre-trib, Acts 9, mid-Acts, dispensational, fundamental Christian.”

Guy number one said, “You heretic”, and then pushed him off the bridge.  

 

 Ridiculous, no?

Masai Creed March 23, 2008

Maasai Creed:

“We believe in one high God, who out of love created the beautiful world. We believe that God made good His promise by sending His Son, Jesus Christ, a man in the flesh, a Jew by tribe, born poor in a little village, who left His home and was always on safari doing good, curing people by the power of God, teaching about God and [humanity], and showing that the meaning of religion is love. He was rejected by His people, tortured and nailed hands and feet to a cross, and died. He was buried in the grave, but the hyenas did not touch Him, and on the third day He rose from the grave. He ascended to the skies. He is the Lord.We believe that all our sins are forgiven through him. All who have faith in him must be sorry for their sins, be baptized in the Holy Spirit of God, live the rules of love, and share the bread together in love, to announce the good news to others until Jesus comes again. We are waiting for him. He is alive. He lives. This we believe. Amen.”

Christ is risen and we are saved.  Hallelujah!!!  Happy Easter!  And woot.

Jesus Among Other Gods December 4, 2007

 

“It is a city that shows its wounds in public… people living on the streets–the old, the young, infants–by the millions, hurting.  The pain is so evident and so pervasive that its effect is to anesthetize you against it.  Then, with some friends, we visited an orphanage… As we walked in, children rose to their feet in their tiny little beds, and shouts came from different parts of the room, as little arms were raised.  Our hearts melted, and tears flooded our eyes.  Goodness in the face of evil is magnificent, because it is more than goodness; it is the touch of God.”
- Ravi Zacharias, Jesus Among Other Gods

Yes.  Yes.  I read this and my jaw just about hit the floor.  People ask me, and I’ve asked others this question myself, “how could all of the pain and misery that you saw in Africa not just devastate you?”  But Ravi has hit the nail on the head, he’s said it better than I’ve been able to. 

Last year when we were doing the Never Again is Again event, I was instructed by my professor that I needed to have the religious components of the documentary edited out, at the risk of offending.  When I passed this on, I was told, “well, there’s a spirituality about Africa that you can’t just edit out.”  Also well put… hard to believe sometimes, but when you’re there, you sense God’s touch, despite the pain and suffering.  I’d argue that it’s because of all the pain and suffering that God’s presence can be felt so strongly.  He’s there, right in the thick of things, in all His glory.  And it is magnificent.  Man… well said, Ravi!

Fantastic book, by the way; I’d highly recommend it.