So, I’m back. Dallas was AMAZING!!!!! I was slapped in the face by God, about 5:00pm CST on last Friday afternoon, with him saying, “Get your eyes off the ground, pick your head up and look in front of you……it’s all in front of you…..let go of your oars and GO!!!!” I know my wife would agree that she had the same experience. There is a cloud in our lives, and like Elijah (1 Kings 18:41-46), we have complete faith that we are about to go places…….and even though when we left that stadium our faith alone may not have been enough, it was at the exact moment we decided to follow that path that the rain came down, in the parking lot of my brother-in-laws hotel……..from a small cloud on a sunny day…….and we were showered with God’s blessings.
So many things came out of this past weekend, but I really must start writing again with what’s going on in our lives on THIS day. Yesterday we made it back in town in just enough time to get our oldest son packed and off to soccer camp. He is 8, and this soccer camp is his first time away from home, alone, without family. This camp is a week long and he was so pumped for yesterday to come so he could get down to Savannah and “go to college.”
It didn’t take long for things to change….it never does, does it? Last night he started getting homesick. The texts started about 9:30pm and then the phone call just before 10. He was crying…he couldn’t sleep….he wanted to come home. I told him to take deep breaths, everything would be okay and tomorrow would be a lot better. We got off the phone and I can only assume he went to sleep because we didn’t hear from him again until this morning.
Its been raining down there, so this morning they didn’t start immediately like they were supposed to. He called me again and I could barely get him to stop crying. It is such a helpless feeling, being a father, so far away, with your son needing comfort. That must be how God feels. We reach out….we call on our cellphones, and although it is hard for Him too, he knows there are times in our lives that we must grow, we must learn, we must have faith, that even though we are alone, He is there. “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me (Psalms 23:4.)”
I talked to my son just a little over an hour ago. He is doing a little better. He said he talked to his mommy and he didn’t know what she said, but whatever it was it really encouraged him. I sent him a video on his phone….Steven Furtick, “Do It Again.” He watched it and felt much better. He told me he hasn’t cried as much today as yesterday and that he is pretty sure he won’t cry at all tomorrow. He is slowly adjusting….slowly learning, slowly having a little bit more faith that everything will be okay.
I don’t know how many times I can write about having faith….but everyday, in another way it rears itself again. Faith is essential to living out God’s plan for your life. “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen (Hebrews 11:1.) I have faith my son will be just fine. I have faith he will grow from this experience, he will learn, and he will come home better of for going through it. I have faith that I am on the right track, that God placed us in that stadium, at that time, in those circumstances, for a reason…..a reason that only my wife and I understand…..not the people around us who watched us completely fall apart only seconds into the final speaker of the day.
The rain that came down an hour later was like Jesus coming out of the tomb three days after His crucifixion. It was as if God wanted us to know for sure, that what we had just experienced wasn’t just some sort of coincidence. And so once again, without even really asking something of God, it just appeared….the strength we need to proceed. The encouragement we need to move forward. And I know God is watching over my son, and today as the rain comes down, I know my son is being propelled through his storm, and he will come out the other side a greater and more faithful person.
I pray each of you will ask God to open your eyes and heart for your purpose….I pray you won’t quit just short of it, but that you will have the faith to learn, grow, persist, and fight your way through to the end.
Tetelestai 