Pray for FINLEY

(Check out Psalm 13 at the bottom even if you don't read all of this)

A little dude (Finley) in Denver stopped breathing a few hours after he was born. The hospital is taking care of him and they seem to say that there is extra blood on his brain. That blood just happens to be applying pressure to the part that controls his breathing - so today he is unable to breathe on his own. So we pray.
To the people that are very close to the situation, what I am about to say may seem like a bunch of hogwash - the others might see it and say, "I guess I never thought of that."

A common thought is - This little dude hasn't even have a chance to live yet. Why would a God that is so loving do something like that? Why did I ever go to church? Why did I ever think that there might be a being that is in control of everything? Most definitely there is not.
There really is no flip side to that coin of thought, but let me share a few ideas that might shine a glimmer of hope in a miserable moment.

(My short version)

I was almost killed. I spent several months in the hospital. I don't remember most of it because I also had blood on my brain. Our lives seemed to begin swirling down the crapper the day that I was injured.

We didn't have much money at first and I was the bread winner = collection agencies galore
I couldn't go to work because I was hurt = loss of job
Broken bones = surgeries that painfully, I do remember
Special hospital where I stayed somewhere else = never feel at home

That's a pretty sorry story, though it is very true. Going through that has lent to us many rocks of God's truth . Just when we thought we could go no more, God showed us a handhold - just a little higher. I want to share some of those with you now.

1. John 11:35 - a verse I learned because it is the shortest in the Bible "Jesus Wept". Give those two words some thought and you might be very surprised. You see, Jesus was weeping, caused by a broken heart. An acquaintance had died and Jesus had shown up after his death. Jesus stood outside of the tomb weeping, not because Lazarus was dead (he could fix that), but because he saw and felt the hurt that the women expressed. Upon seeing their pain, His heart began to hurt.
2. Luke 23:44 - it talks about how it was about noon and darkness had fallen over the whole earth because Jesus was on the cross. Who has the power to make the whole earth dark? God. Jesus is God's son. When God looked down and saw what was happening to His beloved son, it seems that He couldn't bear to see it.

Do you recognize that God could have had control over both of those situations? He could have kept Lazarus alive - He could have kept Jesus from the cross.
How could He allow those things? However, you may say that maybe He didn't have any control over them.

Do you realize that after Lazarus came out of the tomb that John 11:45 happened? It says, "Many of the Jews who had come to Mary and seen what Jesus had done, believed in Him." Now if we step back we can say, "Who cares who believes in Him?"
Now let's step forward again.
Do you realize that after Jesus came back to life, He had just defeated death? Though it seemed like God had lost His grip of control and allowed Jesus to die like that, He really did not even loosen His grip. He knew exactly what was going to happen because of what Jesus suffered through.

1st John 4:8 says that God is love. It doesn't say that God loves stuff or that God loves. It is saying that in loves' purest form, you would find God. He loved Lazarus and He loves His son Jesus and they definitely saw dark days. Any Christian is considered God's son (or daughter). He has a plan that has been set in motion. It is a good, no - great, no - fantastic, no - unfailing plan! As a human, I don't always know where His plan leads. Sometimes, bad things happen (death of Lazarus and Jesus, the Ben injury, little Finley in the Hospital) and sometimes good things happen (Glory to God and eternal defeat of death)- but you know, they are always His things. We must remember that we are not God. His thoughts are not ours. His plan is not necessarily always ours. So when the bad times supercede the good times, remember that we are a part of God's plan - not the focus of it.

One last thought, the one that really helped to give me strength. I love the stories of David in the Bible and my wife found this and showed me. I have loved it and it still gives me strength.

Psalms 13
1 How long, O 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 every day have sorrow in my heart?
How long will my enemy triumph over me?

3 Look on me and answer, O LORD my God.
Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death;

4 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 to the LORD,
for he has been good to me.

LIFE is CHRIST
Ben