When Your World Gets Rocked
Two things rocked my world this week. The first was the devestating earthquake in Haiti. I spent a couple of weeks in Haiti back in 1992. Some of the pictures reminded me of that trip. There were a couple of buildings I saw destroyed on the news that I still have picture of – one I am even standing righ in front of it. I got to touch the hands of the people of Haiti – I played with the children – I looked into their eyes. It was one of the events God used in my calling to full time ministry. My heart sank when I saw the pictures on the news. I felt an emotional tug as I thought about what these people must be going through.
The second thing that rock my world this week was getting the news that a 27 year old father of a two month old baby was told he had cancer and that the outcome was not very promising. This guy serves on our music team. He is a really cool guy. Again, my heart was broken when I got this news. I thought about him – his wife – his newborn baby.
As I wrote in my journal yesterday and today – there were three things that I kept thinking about – as a result of this rocking of my world. The first is the urgency that we need to have as a church to reach people with the life changing message of Jesus. Life is short at times. It can end without notice. Many people leave this world without ever establishing a personal friendship with Jesus. As a church we need to keep the outreach focus our primary focus – to reach as many people as possible it whatever time we have and they have left. We need to stop getting distracted by other things. The second thing is that some of the problems and challenges I have a pretty incidental compared to what people in these two scenarios are facing. For a couple of days I haven’t prayed for one personal request but have placed all my energy in praying only for the needs of others. Sometimes we need this shot of perspective to make most of us realize how good we really have it and to stop our whinnng and complaining. The third thing I was thinking about is prayer. That prayer sometimes is the only hope that we have to hold onto. The sad thing is that so often prayer only becomes a priority when our world does get rocked. I will pray hard for Mikey and for Haiti.
My world has been rocked this week and my heart breaks for the news I got this week. But some great lessons have been learned. Lessons I needed reminding of. Lesson on urgency – perspective – prayer. God has a unique curriculum to teach us some very valuable life lessons.
Last night I connected with a friend and mentor – a man who changed my life and was part of me finding my way into ministry. He was recently diagnosed with cancer (I am sick of hearing that word). I wondered how he was doing so I asked. He told me that earlier this year he had prayed that this would be a year that he drew him more closely to God than ever – that he would sense the presence of God better – that his prayer life would be fuller. He said God answered that prayer and that he has never felt closer to God and prayed more than this year – all because of news that must have rocked his world. I hope I can continue to have that same kind of faith as my world gets rocked more and more. Rock on!!!