Speak His Name

SPEAKING HIS NAME

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I love the way God uses us to encourage and inspire each other at often just the right time. Through what was most definitely a God ordained conversation, I was recently reminded that I should be speaking His name into this hostile world every chance I get. And with boldness. He is the light of the World and where there is light there cannot be darkness. It’s easy to get swept up in statistics and science and numbers but He is the God of truth and only His name can cut through all of the lies. These things were on my mind as I prepared to speak at a school board meeting. Though my youngest child attends a Christian school, my highschoolers do not. They have attended this school for 7 years. I was speaking to people I knew. And in a lot of ways that is scarier to me than speaking to strangers. But as I waited for my turn I prayed. And I thought about what exactly it is I have to lose. The truth is, nothing. Nothing at all. I know how my story ends. It’s in the presence of my King. Why would I fear rejection or condemnation when I know this life is but a vapor? The following is the speech I gave. I hope in some small way it inspires others to speak His name. 

GOD HEALS

 

 

 

Our 13 year old son received a kidney transplant several years ago. He has a rare kidney disease with an unknown cause and no cure. Before his transplant we did everything we could to save his kidneys. Every time he would get the slightest illness he would relapse. So we kept him in a bubble. If he just didn’t get sick maybe we could beat this terrible disease. But he relapsed anyway. Eventually his kidneys failed despite us doing everything in our power to prevent it. 

And we learned. 

We learned that we are not the Healer. That position belongs to God alone. 

It’s not on our shoulders to control life and death or even sickness and health. And there is freedom in that. We stopped trying to control what was never meant to be under our authority anyway and started focusing on giving our son the most normal and full life we could. He went to school. He played with friends. He had sleepovers.

And he lived. 

And he STILL lives. 

He kept living through all of this. Because time can’t be bought, borrowed or returned. It isn’t guaranteed nor can we will more of it into being. We can only decide what we do with the God given gift of it, RIGHT NOW. 

A WAR OF IDEOLOGIES

I am so tired. I’m tired of talking about vaccines and gene therapies, and statistics and masks. I’m tired of half truths and biased news on both sides of this debate. This has moved past being about keeping people healthy and is now a war between ideologies. And the thing is, nobody is completely right. We can’t be. Because we are not the sovereign God.

I was ok with my family wearing a mask at the very beginning of all of this. But I’m not anymore. The entire human race has holed up, masked up, vaxed up, and the virus spread anyway. I see so many people putting their hope and their salvation in masks and vaccines. For some it has become a religion. For me, I put my hope in Christ alone and trust Him only for my salvation. I know that this broken body, subject to sickness and pain WILL die. And then Heaven. And there will be healing there. 

I am not asking this board to ban masks. I am asking that each family be allowed to make the decision for themselves based on their own sincerely held beliefs. You are not responsible for chasing down the wind to stop a virus. We all know the risks associated with sending our kids to school, wearing a mask or not, getting the vaccine or not. We are all beyond educated on the matter. Now it is time to allow people the freedom to choose.

HOPE

I went to the first home football game and I was just so incredibly blessed  to see the students smiling and happy. My son is in pep band and he stated “I had forgotten how fun the games are.” He also mentioned how they realized the upperclassmen needed to start teaching the sophomores all of the traditions, because they didn’t know. They missed their entire freshman year of participating in those things.  I was so relieved because I feared their buy-in for school may not return. Please, please, do not pull the rug out from under them again by forcing them to cover their smiles, their interactions, their joy. Our kids have endured enough and lost enough already. Now it is time for hope.