This is quite a story. It reminded me of my friends, Dustin and Kellie Shramek, who lost their precious son, Owen, about 8 years ago. In the book Suffering and the Sovereignty of God, Dustin wrote a chapter about some of the lessons that God taught him–lessons about God, and also lessons about how and how not to minister to those in nearly unbearable grief and pain.
After the book was published, Women Today Radio did a brief interview with Dustin; here’s an excerpt:
How has Jesus sustained you through the dark days?
At first it was hard to see how Jesus was sustaining us through the dark days. Yet deep down I knew that he was. My mother died when I was sixteen, two years after I had become a believer. After her death God lead me to Romans 5:3-5, “More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” Having endured through her death I had come out on the other end with my faith intact and I again had hope that God was for me.
After Owen died my wife, who had not experienced the death of one so close, never believed that she would be able to have joy again. And while I certainly didn’t feel joy, I knew that one day I would. The suffering I had endured through my mother’s death had indeed produced hope. Even though my firstborn was dead I believed that I would again have joy. I had experienced God’s faithfulness and I knew that he would be faithful again.
The text, though, that impacted me the most was 2 Corinthians 7:6, “But God, who comforts the downcast, comforted us by the coming of Titus.” During the first months after Owen’s death we felt very little comfort from God. At times I struggled with anger thinking, “God, I know you are sovereign and so you are the one who brought this about. I accept that, but the least you could do is draw near to us and give us comfort.” On the six month anniversary I was reading through all the e-mails and cards we had received from God’s people and I was reflecting on the help we had received from his people where he was born. Then I read this verse and it dawned on me. God was and is comforting us by the coming of countless brothers and sisters in Christ. Often we don’t feel the warm presence of the Lord in our suffering, but that does not mean he has left us alone. We are a part of the body of Christ and it is through this body that he ministers to us in our darkest days.
This morning I met with a small group of pastors. At one point I asked the question, “What do you do to regularly refresh yourself in the Lord?” The first response was an honest one. “I don’t know. But I’m ready to write down any good answers from the rest of you.” Then our worship pastor chimed in and said something that made a lot of sense. He said, “I like to sing throughout the day and just meditate on the words of those songs.” He talked about singing and repeating simple choruses as a way of reminding himself of the gospel.
People sing about the things that capture their hearts and things that give them joy. People sing of heroes, victory, longing, and hope. People even sing as a way to express their sorrow. Does anyone have more reasons to sing than you? As a sinner who has been forgiven, a slave who has been freed, a blind man who has received sight, a spiritual cripple who has been healed–all by the gospel-you have real reasons to be known as a person of song!
I’m curious. What do you do to regularly refresh yourself in the Lord? I’d love to hear from you.
As people enter our doors this Easter Sunday, will they see us as real people worshiping a real Savior? Will they enter a community of grace? Tim Chester, in his excellent book, You Can Change, lists some great questions to discern if your church is a community of grace, and thus attractive to broken, needy sinners.
Are people open about their sin or is there a culture of pretending?
Is community life messy or sanitized?
Are broken people attracted to your community?
Is conflict out in the open or is it suppressed?
Are forgiveness and reconciliation actively pursued?
Do you constantly return to the cross in your conversation, prayers and praise?
With all the media attention given to Charlie Sheen lately, I thought this quote by David Kupelian, in his book, How Evil Works, was very insightful:
Human beings were never made to be worshiped … Worship does extremely weird things to human beings … Worship destroys us and drives us mad.
I’m not pointing the finger at Charlie Sheen. All of us are in great danger when we begin to think we are something special. And like Sheen, when we’re drugged up on praise we can grow increasingly egocentric and narcissistic. We worship ourselves, and this is not only sinful–it’s satanic in nature.
Chuck Lawless in his excellent book, Discipled Warriors, compares the pride of Satan and the humility of Jesus from Isa. 14:13-14 and Phil. 2:5-11.
Satan chased after glory and power … Jesus walked away from glory and power
Satan wanted to ascend to a throne … Jesus descended to earth
Satan tried to be God … Jesus became a human
Satan wanted to be master … Jesus became a servant
Satan was cast down for his pride … Jesus was exalted for his humility
James Boice describes the scene this way. ”Satan said, I will go up … up … up and God said, “You will be cast down, down, down into hell.” And Jesus said, “I will go down to the cross.” And God said, “You will be exalted and given the name that is above every other name.”
The truth is that all of us were made to worship. But humans don’t make very good gods. Only God himself can open our eyes to see this truth through the death and resurrection of his Son Jesus. May he do so for all of us – including Charlie Sheen.
I think about this question a lot as a family pastor and father of three young kids. My answer is pretty simple. Every night before bedtime, I try to gather my kids together and read from a quality Bible storybook or the Bible itself. I try to ask age-appropriate questions at the end, and then we pray together. That’s it. Sometimes I’ll get out my guitar and we’ll sing a few songs. Other times I’ll let my kids draw what they hear from the story and we’ll talk about it.
This doesn’t take a long time, but I’m convinced that over time (by the grace of God) it is perhaps the most important thing I can do to disciple (or spiritually invest into) my kids. One other thing I’ll add … I’m slowly learning that I do my best parenting on my knees in prayer. Take a look at this post to learn a simple way to pray for your kids daily.
