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Please Just Show Me

Needs Further Evaluation, Part 2

My recent medical journey highlighted yet another lesson. Needs Further Evaluation started on January 13th with an email alert that pushed the boundaries of my walk with God and took me to parts previously unknown.

As we waited and wondered, as He schooled us in the Doctrine of Mystery, I found myself pushing the boundaries of prayer to pray: “God, will You please just go ahead and speak to me and show me how this is going to end? Will You simply tell me the outcome?”

In my human frailty, I wanted a mental and emotional head start on any mandatory adjustments destined to define my future. My mind went to commitments for the upcoming year, birthday parties, family gatherings, conferences, etc. If only I could just know.

So, I urged God to tell me where this was headed and how it would end; “Please just show me.”

He did show me, but not in a manner that I expected. By His Spirit, He led me to His Word and a specific conversation Jesus had with the Pharisees when they asked for a sign.

Matthew 12:38-39 reads, “Then some of the scribes and Pharisees said to Him, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from You.” But He answered and said to them, “An evil and adulterous generation craves for a sign; and yet no sign will be given to it, but the sign of Jonah the prophet.”

This took my breath. I did not feel rebuked or reprimanded for asking. Rather, in a gentle way, My Savior reminded me: “Do not seek a sign; just seek Me. Find your peace in Me, not in a prediction, not in an indication, not in an outcome, but in Me. ”

So, with Him by my side, I settled in and settled down to honor His timing — without a sign, without knowing. My prayer became, "I trust You. I don't know, but You do know, and that is all I need to know until the time arrives that You want me to know.”

Following this encounter with The Lord, lab tests, biopsies, and genetic consultations filled our calendar, and we waited. When the news finally came, as I shared previously, the outcome brought relief (though a five-year treatment is mandatory).

Looking back, I realize, these tenets are not new, yet they took on new meaning in the context of this pilgrim’s journey. Don’t seek a sign, just seek Me.

No wonder. After all, “He is our peace” (Ephesians 2:14a).

Living With Eternal Intentionality®

“He has also planted eternity [a sense of divine purpose] in the human heart.”

(Ecclesiastes 3:11 Amp)

When have you asked God to give you a preview of the outcome of a difficult situation?

Did He allow you to know, or did He lead you to wait in trust until His timing was right for you to know His will?

What Scripture did He use to encourage you?

Tim Keller Leaves Legacy of Wisdom

On Friday, May 19th, earth lost a warrior and heaven gained a saint. Tim Keller, 1950-2023, founding pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian in New York City, died of pancreatic cancer at the age of seventy-two. “The Christian leader was an intellectual, but he possessed a pastor’s heart,” states Peter Wehner in The Atlantic.

And, in NPR Obituaries, we read:

Keller helped his congregation and the nation mourn in the days following the September 11th terrorist attacks – a time when so many were asking why God would allow this to happen.

"The Bible indicates," he said to his church in a sermon on September 16th, 2001 "that the love and hope of God and the love and hope that comes from one another has to be rubbed into our grief. And that's what we're here to do."

This collection of quotes reminds us that his legacy lives on.

“Suffering can refine us rather than destroy us because God himself walks with us in the fire.”

“When pain and suffering come upon us, we finally see not only that we are not in control of our lives but that we never were.”

“One of the main ways we move from abstract knowledge about God to a personal encounter with him as a living reality is through the furnace of affliction.”

“If our identity is in our work, rather than Christ, success will go to our heads, and failure will go to our hearts.”

“What is an idol? It is anything that absorbs your heart and imagination more than God, anything you seek to give you what only God can give.”

“If God is not at the center of your life, something else is.”

“Fear-based repentance makes us hate ourselves. Joy-based repentance makes us hate the sin.”

“Humility is so shy. If you begin talking about it, it leaves.”

“When anything in life is an absolute requirement for your happiness and self-worth, it is essentially an ‘idol,’ something you are actually worshiping. When such a thing is threatened, your anger is absolute. Your anger is actually the way the idol keeps you in its service, in its chains. Therefore if you find that, despite all the efforts to forgive, your anger and bitterness cannot subside, you may need to look deeper and ask, ‘What am I defending? What is so important that I cannot live without?’ It may be that, until some inordinate desire is identified and confronted, you will not be able to master your anger.”

“If you wait until your motives are pure and unselfish before you do something, you will wait forever.”

Thank you, Tim Keller. You will be sorely missed.

Living With Eternal Intentionality®

“He has also set eternity in their heart” (Ecclesiastes 3:11).

Which Tim Keller quote resonates with you? Why?

Do you have a favorite book authored by Tim Keller to recommend to us? Why was it meaningful to you?

Will you please take a moment to pray for the family and the congregation Tim Keller left behind?

Note: These Tim Keller Quotes and others may be read here.

Needs Further Evaluation

Three intrusive words in an email altered my life: Needs Further Evaluation. Without warning, I found myself forced to wait for lab results from a recent biopsy*. While caught in the elusive clutches of the unknown, God met me in what I have chosen to call The Doctrine of Mystery.

One wakeful night in the midst of this medical journey, while Larry made soft, peaceful noises that sounded like wind blowing gently through the trees, I pondered the question: “What is God Teaching Me About Mystery?” The results of my tutorial from the Holy Spirit follow.

  • Mystery is a sacred space.

“Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground” (Exodus 3:5b).

Unknown places and unwanted circumstances offer a supernatural opportunity to experience the Presence of God.

  • Mystery encounters a contest of voices.

“My sheep hear My Voice and I know them and they follow Me” (John 10:27-28).

 Caught in the vice grip of waiting, you and I must decide whose voice we will follow.

  • Mystery fosters the perfect ground for praise and worship.

“Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails, and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Savior” (Habakkuk 3:17-18).

 We must determine whether we will wait in worship or wait in worry.

  •  Mystery becomes a haven for faith.

“You go before me and follow me. You place your hand of blessing on my head” (Psalm 139:5).

 What I don’t know about my life, I do know about my God.

  • Mystery provides an opportunity for growth.

“Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing” (James 1:2-4).

 While we are interested in the outcome, God is concerned with the journey.

 

Living With Eternal Intentionality®

Intimacy with Jesus, Authenticity with others, Passion for your calling, Purpose for your influence

Medical mysteries carry unique challenges. What is your most recent experience with this reality?

How did God meet you?

What insights do you have to add regarding “The Doctrine of Mystery”?

*This journey is not over. Thankfully, I am not a victim of cancer. But for 5 years I will be on medication in an effort to avoid its clutches.