stark contrasts

 I was in the process of texting my son to tell him how proud I am of him after watching his most recent video, http://vimeo.com/54815992 and how I marvel at the seemingly unending talent and ability that God has blessed him with, when a text came in on my hubby's phone laying beside me.

My amazing hubby, makes a certain special needs adult young man feel he can come to him about anything.  So he very often and sometimes MANY times a day hears from this young man.  The other text message told my hubby that he was going back to the doctor.  His 'shaking' has become very bad.

It struck me what a contrast this was.

On one hand our son, a young man fully capable of doing almost anything he puts his mind to, on the other hand a young man who would give anything for an opportunity just to be fully functional and able to choose what to accomplish today.  Instead it's dictated to him, day after day, what he'll accomplish based on his current health and stability of mind.

Why does God allow this kind of contrast...I don't know.  I do believe God is sovereign and He decides what best furthers His kingdom.

Watching this special needs young man struggle sometimes just to survive, does draw me to the Lord.  It draws me in prayer and it encourages me when he succeeds - I cheer for him.  I can understand - just a little  bit more, how things that don't make sense to us fit into God's plan, and I rest in that.

Yes, it's easy for me to say, because my son is doing well and is healthy, but I've worked with special needs kids in the past and I understand even more now why they are so special.  It's their pure belief and joy in the Lord.  It's the uninhibited joy and their expression in worship that I see in our services at Crossroads.  God uses the 'least of these'.  In His eyes I suspect THEY are the closest to the heart of God - they are unquestioning.

Stark contrasts drove me to the Lord today.

the Lord's presence=power

And David became more and more powerful, because the power of the LORD of heavens armies was with him. I Chronicles 11:9

This paragraph followed my daily reading:
Sometimes we Christians shrink from power giving it away too easily in the name of humility. We may think it is sinful to want power or to be powerful. Here we see that the Lord's presence will mean power. The issue is about where the power comes from and what we do with it.

I had really never thought about the possibility of God wanting us to have power. The author of the above paragraph claims that the Lord's presence will mean power! I am resistant to this concept, the people I admire the most in my life are very humble. Many up-front people I know struggle with power or arrogance. Power sounds so negative!

A gentleman approached me at church last weekend and complimented a TV interview I did to advertise Rick Muchow's visit. I promise, I am not exaggerating when I say it was a horrible interview! The content was fine, but I was really bad on camera, I sounded scared to death!
I went on to tell him how much I love being behind the scenes. He said, "...I don't think God wants you to be behind the scenes." Ok, so this gentleman and I know one another, but have never had much of a conversation, so for him to make this statement totally threw me!

Later I mentioned the conversation to a co-worker who said, "God doesn't want you to be comfortable." Thanks!

I am willing to do what God calls me to do, but I also know we are all gifted differently and 'up front' type work is not what He has gifted me with. I don't know where my negative association with power came from, and if God wants us to live with power, I will but... I think we can be powerful from behind too! Behind the scenes, behind other upfront people and my favorite place, behind my computer screen!