"What Now?" by Nathan Shaub

This week I received the following email from Nathan Shaub (He helps lead worship on Sundays and does a great and spirit-filled job), who gave me permission to share it as my weekly blog. 

“So we worked for weeks with getting out of the boat. Some of us stayed in the boat knowing that while we may have a rougher time in the boat we are comfortable with those kinds of storms, but for some of us... We Stepped Out...

This may be a spiritual walk but the obstacles we face are very real and feel more threatening than staying in the boat. (I would recommend watching the new movie “Tomorrowland” because it depicts this perfectly. She touches the pin and is taken to another world, she can see and feel and experience things others around her cannot, but when she focuses too much on what she sees while touching the pin she runs into walls, falls down stairs, almost drowns...) I feel like to continue walking on water entire focus must remain on God, but then how do I do my day to day life?

If you know where to find the book titled, "What to do once you've gotten out of the boat..." I would love to read it. I am beginning to understand how Peter with all of the proof required to know God was with him there walking on water, could lose sight of the Lord and begin to sink. The story seems to end there and they are back on the boat immediately after Jesus reaches out and pulls him out of the water, but hadn't he taken a few steps out of the boat? Did Jesus carry him back to safety or did Peter once again have to walk on water but this time with the physical touch of Jesus, more than just the knowledge that he was there with him but the physical help someone with a broken leg would require to walk to a waiting car?”

Thank you, Nate, for your honest thoughts and questions.  I believe it is a fitting end to our “Brave” series.  If you wonder why I have not attempted to offer an answer it is because I think what is happening between you and Jesus is too important for me to get involved in and risk messing it up.  However, I do pray that your thoughts will give others permission to think, pray and wrestle with Jesus and perhaps even write the book, “What to do Once You’ve Gotten Out of the Boat.”

True Faith

Yesterday, after a prayer was prayed, Doug Kandel asked us to sing the following song with him as he lovingly helped his wife, Connie, transition from this life to the next. 

Jesus, Jesus, Jesus

 There's just something about that name

Master, Savior, Jesus
Like the fragrance after the rain

 Jesus, Jesus, Jesus

There's just something about that name

 Master, Savior, Jesus

Like the fragrance after the rain

 Jesus, Jesus, Jesus

Let all heaven and earth proclaim

 Kings and kingdoms will all pass away

But there's just something about that name

 As the song was sung, the presence of Jesus in that hospital room was more than evident.  And how Jesus must have smiled at the Kandel family as he wiped tears from his eyes and interceded on their behalf to the Father because through them true faith was demonstrated. It is a faith that says, “We will trust Jesus no matter what—whether healing is on this side of heaven or in heaven itself; whether life gives us reason to rejoice or to grieve; whether things make sense now, later or never.  At the end of the day we will not submit to anything smaller than Jesus.”  Thank you, Kandel family for the example of true faith you live and that Connie lived.

Which Way?

Yesterday I was driving through downtown Mount Vernon, Ohio.  The road I was to take at the turn-about was closed.  I found myself all turned around.  The person I was riding with asked, “Didn’t you go to college here?”  “Yes,” I said, “But that was a long time ago.”  (Besides when I was at MVNU, the road I needed to take was not closed)!  To make matters worse, I got even more turned around on the way home.  If not for my passenger, who suggested I was headed the wrong way on Rt. 3, I would probably still be trying to find my way home.  I told him that he now knows how Kimberly feels.  She is use to my lack of a sense of direction.  My kids actually moan and say, “Are you lost again, Daddy?” because the occurrence is so common. 

It is one thing to get turned around and even lost when you are driving some place.  That is bad enough!  But isn’t it worst to feel like that is your life?  To be honest, when I was younger I thought my direction for life was pretty clear.  I accepted God’s call to ministry at age 14. I knew where I was going. I went to MVNU.  Then to seminary.  And then…well…after that it has not been nearly as clear.  I mean there are moments of clarity.  But there are also moments when I feel like the road I knew to take has been closed and I am left to guess at which is the best way to go. 

Have you ever wanted to scream:  “God, just tell me which way to go!  I don’t have the strength to figure it out on my own!” 

Jeremiah must have sensed that among the people of Israel as they were entering the land of exile.  They were separated from friends, relocated from their homes and removed from the familiar.  They were wandering and lost in a foreign land.  The road they knew was not only closed but gone.  And right there in the pace where they felt most lost, God spoke a word that still speaks today:

“For I know the plans I have for you” declares the Lord, “Plans to prosper you and not harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.  Then you will call upon me and come to pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,” declares the Lord, “and I will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you, “ declares the Lord, “and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile.” (Jer. 29:11-14).

It is interesting that God says we are not ready to seek and find him until we first are ready to believe that he has good plans for our future.  “Then”, he says, after we believe that promise, then we are ready to come to him in prayer.  And we will find him.  Apparently, the key to finding the right road back home is not by figuring out which road to take, but by seeking him with all our heart.  And once he is found (and he promises he will be), then he will bring us back from exile. 

“Father, thank you for your promise.  You have plans for us that are good and not to harm us.  Forgive us for trying to figure out the right road to take.  It is not about finding the right road, but about finding you.  Maybe we will stay lost as long as we are trying to find your will and way, because we are making it about something less than you.  We are sorry.  But we are also ready to seek you with all our heart because we don’t want to live lost in the land of exile.  We want you to gather us and bring us back home.  We trust you for this.  We need you in this way.  And we thank you for listening to us. Amen.”

What's in a Name?

If I was asked to share one specific example in which my Mom has had an ongoing impact on my life, I would say it has to do with my name.  I can still remember the day it happened.  I was elementary school age and we were driving some place.  It was during that drive that my mom said, “Do you know what your name means?”  I didn’t so she told me.  “Chad,” she said, “your name means defender or warrior.”  Well, at that age that would have been enough for me as knowing that is what my name meant was pretty cool.  But my Mom did not want me to interpret the meaning of my name without her adding her thoughts.  She went on to say, “Chad, God wants you to defend his truth and to stand up for what is right even if you stand alone.  You won’t always be popular if you live this way, but you will live for something worth more than popularity.  It won’t always be easy if you speak up when everyone else would prefer you to be silent, but it will be worth it, because you will make God happy.” 

That day she did more than interpret the meaning of my name.  She shaped me that day in a way that still influences me through today.  On days when I am tempted to back down, even though I know God is saying stand firm or when I would prefer to remain silent, even though I know God is saying say something or when I would rather give into apathy even though God is saying do something, I not only have the Holy Spirit’s thumb in my back, but my mom’s voice ringing in my head: “Chad, your name means defender.  You are a defender of the faith.”  Sometimes it really ticks me off…I want to scream, “Just be quiet and both of you leave me alone!”  But I am so thankful that neither voice pays a bit of attention to my protests because left to myself I would surely live for less.

Of course, what made her words all the more powerful in my life was that she and Dad lived out what she was trying to get me to hear.  Time and time again, I have watched my parents choose the way less traveled for the sake of God’s grace and truth.  They have embraced people who others rejected.  They have rebuked those that others feared.  They have done something while others were only willing to talk about it.  They have made sacrifices for the cause of Christ while others made excuses.  They were by no means perfect, but while others would have justified their shortcomings, they simply confessed it and even told their sons they were sorry.  Most of all, they showed me that a name is more than something people call you, but a calling to live for something more.   

Happy Mother’s Day, Mom!  Thank you both, Mom and Dad, for showing me what it means to live up to the name you gave me.  I love you!