(Blog of Stan Kellner, President of Image Clear Ultrasound National – www.icumobile.org – Revealing life…at the crossroads of decision)
If only I had…If so and so had been here this woulda…You have the ability to fix this but you didn’t fix…
As I sit in my hotel room in Roanoke VA I was struck with the story of Lazarus being raised from the dead (John 11). Tons of good stuff to dig out, ponder and apply. For me, most of my ponderings and applications from this passage have centered around Jesus’ power to raise from the dead and then the instructions to the family and friends, “Unbind him that he might be set free”.
Wow, power-packed words for any of us facing challenges, needing to see God’s hand in our lives, needing to feel that sense of community and the healing derived from it.
But something different struck me today. It said clearly in the passage that Jesus knew Lazarus was sick and this was a sickness unto death. Even when He was with His disciples He basically said that Lazarus was asleep. But, He had to explain to them that that meant Lazarus was dead!
Even some of the onlookers said this about Jesus, “Could not this man, who opened the eyes of the blind man, have kept this man also from dying?”
Pretty fair question, if you ask me. After all, Jesus is the God of the universe, the Great I AM, the Word who was in the beginning with God and is God, our Mighty One to Save. But, wait a minute, He is all these things but yet let Lazarus died?
Uh, God. Am I missing something here? Yes, Stan, my beloved. My ways are not your ways and My thoughts are higher than your thoughts. (I’m letting you in on a bit of my discussion with God).
I’m not going to minimize any pain, challenge or distress you or I might be under today. The Lord knows that when we stand for righteousness in a culture filled with death, immorality, non-absolute thinking, the list goes on, we’re going to face battles day in and day out.
What I’m trying to say is that we are not going to end every day in victory. We’re not going to end every week in victory. We may not even end every year in victory. But does that mean that God is not there? That He’s not involved? That He doesn’t care?
There’s an awesome Christian band out these days named Fireflight, one of my personal faves. In their song Unbreakable, Dawn (the lead singer) says this -
“Sometimes it’s hard to just keep going, But faith is moving without knowing, Can I trust what I can’t see to reach my destiny; I want to take control but I know better”.
I love this song and that part of the song has convicted me a ton and a half times during the last 3 years since discovering that tune.
Woulda, Coulda? God this coulda been avoided? God, if you had been here, woulda…?
Abba, our intimate Father, has precious lessons for us to learn personally and professionally. It isn’t all about winning or getting ahead or being the best of the best of the best, sir (a quote from Men in Black). The raising of Lazarus, in fact, brought greater glory to Himself and far greater impact to the onlookers than would have happened otherwise.
It’s all about trusting God’s unseen Hand and His often unseen purposes in our every day life. God wants us to be found faithful – faithful in trusting Him, not trusting ourselves, our circumstances or whatever else we depend on.
Would you join me in asking Abba to help us remove the “woulda, couldas” in our everyday life?
