With friends like these...

I've been making my way through Job for the last few days. Since I'm doing more dog walking because of Linda's health stuff my way of "reading" is to listen via my ipod. One of the great things about listening (which by the way, the Bible was originally designed not merely to be read but to be listened to and memorized) is you often hear things differently. One of the things that has really gotten through to me is the arrogance (and unhelpfulness) of Job's friends. They all spout the party line about why Job is struggling, they all point out that Job must be one very sinful guy to have all that has happened to him happen, they all do this--even though they have certainly observed his life and seen his faithful following after God. The conclusion they come to is something like, "Well sure you look like you follow God, but we know that can't be so because you are suffering--so you must have done nasty things in secret." Anyway, as I listened I really felt for Job and was reminded for myself that pious and sure platitudes in the midst of suffering do very little good. Probably the best things his "friends" did is what they did at first: they were so overwhelmed by his suffering that they sat with him and said nothing.

The other part of Job to keep in mind is that Job's friends are in fact spewing forth the accepted wisdom of their day, namely, the righteous prosper and the wicked suffer. The book of Job is designed to raise the question of how do you deal with things when the righteous suffer, how do the righteous suffer and how do they deal with God in the midst of their suffering? What is most stunning is that the solution for Job's suffering and the pain of it, is not God telling him why he is suffering, rather it is a demonstration of the greatness of God. In the last chapters of Job is given a picture of God's greatness. When he sees that greatness he puts aside his demand to have his day in court. One has to wonder how seeing the greatness of God is a remedy for what we see as unjust suffering. Could it be that we have made God so close that we can no longer see him as truly great and because we cannot see him as great we can't deal with our suffering--except to demand an answer for it?

Linda's Broken Pelvis

Just a quick update from this summer's car accident. Linda went to the doctor yesterday to check on the progress of healing in terms of her broken pelvis. The x-ray showed that it is healed! The doc told Linda that it will be about 1 year before she is fully back to where she was before the accident, but he's lifted all restrictions on activities--a great thing. Now if we can just get her pain level down from the surgery for cancer...

Linda's Cancer

We received good news today. After totally missing Linda's tumor the first time, this time they got it all with good margins--which means no more surgery Yea! The tumor itself was small 3mm x 8mm. We are going to meet with an oncologist to discuss further treatment.

Thanks to all for your prayers and concern as we've been jumping from one crisis to another these last few months.

Canada

We had a great weekend in Canada attending the wedding of friends, Dan and Mira, as well as getting to spend time with our daughter Gayle. The weekend included some good rest, good food, and great conversations. For those of you who traverse the border from time to time a happy moment came in a quick border crossing in spite of the fact that it was Canadian Thanksgiving.

Times of Refreshing

I think that one of the greatest or at least most appealing lines in the Bible is in Acts 3 where Peter calls people to repent so that "times of refreshing may come". Who doesn't want to have times that are refreshing. It makes you think of diving into a cool pool on a hot summer's day or drinking that great cold drink after a hard run--refreshing. What I'm not sure I caught before is that the refreshing has at least two parts to it. First comes repentance which brings about a blotting out of our sins--refreshing! Next comes a refreshing new life by listening to and following the words of Jesus. Peter in this masterful message connects Jesus to Moses and the prophet that Moses said would be coming that the people were to listen to him (check out that at the transfiguration 9.35 that the Father makes this same connection when he tells us to "listen to him" i.e. Jesus). The cool thing is that when Peter uses this reference from Deuteronomy 18.15-19 is that he connects Jesus with the teachings of the Torah and the giving of the law on Sinai. Here's what it says in Dt. 18 15 "The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen— 16just as you desired of the LORD your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly, when you said, 'Let me not hear again the voice of the LORD my God or see this great fire any more, lest I die.' 17And the LORD said to me, 'They are right in what they have spoken. 18 I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him."
In making this connection Peter wants us to see that Jesus is the new Torah or God's new word to his people telling them how to live. Following that path brings times of refreshing, ignoring the path means being cut off from the refreshing that Jesus' teaching brings. Of course, for al of us this has a struggle to it--we actually have to believe (which means both saying with our mouths and doing with our lives) that Jesus' teaching is the way to a refreshing life. The second part of the struggle is to spend enough time studying the teaching of Jesus to discover that refreshing life. I know that I'm not alway in either of those places.

A family update

It's been quite a summer and fall for our family. You can check out the summer struggles by looking at those posts. For our fall deal we found out 2 weeks ago that Linda, my wife, has breast cancer. Her surgery last week went well--sort of. The good news out of the surgery is that there is no cancer in the lymph nods. The bad news is that somehow the main point of the surgery --to remove the cancerous lump--was totally missed. Yes, they took out only healthy tissue and missed the lump. How is this possible you ask, no one has a really good explanation--just theories. The bottom line was, "This has never happened before". While we like to break new ground, this is not one of the ways we want to do it. Linda's repeat surgery is scheduled for October 11. We are trying to find ways to assure there is not another "miss".

On a happier note, we are heading to Canada this weekend for a wedding of two great people, Dan and Mira. The added bonus is that Gayle will be flying in from Seattle for the wedding so we get to spend a couple of days with Gayle and Rob. I'll try to take some pics and put them up next week.

Just wondering

I started reading the book of Acts today and noticed something in the footnote of my esv Bible version, namely, that when it talks about Jesus' brothers being in the upper room praying (Acts 1.14) that the Greek word can mean and most likely in this case does mean siblings. So Jesus' brothers and sisters are in the upper room praying. In verse 15 when Peter stands up among the brothers the same words is used--so the crowd he addresses and calls brothers is actually a mixed crew of men and women. All of this reminds me of the radically inclusive nature of Jesus' ministry where both men and women can be and in fact are disciples (see Luke 8). Along with this come the words of Acts 2.41 where we are told about 3000 are added to the Christian community on that first day of Pentecost--unlike the distinction when Jesus feeds the 5000 where we are told that there are 5000 men besides women and children, here we find a unity. It seems as we move into the book of Acts the separation between men and women disciples is being broken down and now there is just one group--followers of Jesus (see Galatians 3.28).

Along with this I also wondered about another group -- kids. It is interesting how few times we find children central to the story in both the gospels and Acts, not to mention the epistles. Are they part of the 3000 counted in Acts 2? I wonder if the lack of children being mentioned connects with the OT idea (Dt. 6) that children are taught by their parents and the covenant community so that the adults learn and become disciples by being with the Apostles and then they carry this not only to the world, but also to their children. Children are not mentioned very often because they are second in line in receiving the message and Acts is about those who are first in line. Not sure if this is right, but I was just wondering.