It Just Got Real

This weeks 'Final Word' comes form E.J. Smith of Denver.  EJ is the Associate Pastor at Missio Dei Fellowship in Denver, CO.  He is also a musician, bloggist and social-activist and former touring mate with Pastor Bill (yes that means he's got stories!)

I was lying in the middle of my living room trying to make deals with God for my Son's life. My one year old possibly had cancer, and the possible tumors were near his heart. I was desperate, scared, broken; and there was no answer in sight. Life just got real.

Sometimes it feels like God has turned His gaze away and is not even paying attention. It can be a time in your life when you just need a comforting word of assurance (“God are you there?"), or maybe life just got real and you are desperate (Holy crap, are you There?!). The Psalms are amazing at capturing snapshots of our emotions, check out Psalm 13 (NIV):

"1 How long, Lord? Will you forget me forever?    How long will you hide your face from me?2 How long must I wrestle with my thoughts  and day after day have sorrow in my heart?    How long will my enemy triumph over me?3 Look on me and answer, Lord my God.    Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death, 4 and my enemy will say, “I have overcome him, ”    and my foes will rejoice when I fall.5 But I trust in your unfailing love;  my heart rejoices in your salvation. 6 I will sing the Lord’s praise,    for he has been good to me."

Notice the desperation. Life just got real, and the writer has no where else to go. He is afraid of not only dying, but his enemies basically dancing on his grave. But there is hope immediately in the text...God's love. The very essence of God, and the very reason He sent his Son into the world, gives us a reason to sing, rejoice, rely and expect God to work it out for His glory, and not ours.

Flash forward a few weeks...our family was waiting and praying in the lobby of the local Childrens hospital. After three hours, the surgeon comes out with a puzzled look. The tumors were gone. Amazing miracle aside, and it was, we had finally given our Son over to God, and gave up on our plans for him. All we could do is trust in and wait on God.

EJ Smith