The Power of Presence

 In a few days if not before, children will be ripping into presents.  I remember when our girls were younger Christmas morning was about shaking packages, tearing the paper, peaking into boxes and then tossing them off to the side to see what was in the next package.  Whether the package was small or large, it didn't matter - the anticipation was the same.

The family dynamics change when your children grow older; Christmas begins to be about sleeping in on Christmas mornings and the kids receiving gifts and giving gifts to their friends.  Lisa and I are looking forward to being home this year for Christmas - one of the first ever if not the first.  We will exchange gifts - have a cup of coffee - the phone will probably not ring unless it is family.  Not sure if we will see our married daughter until later and our youngest daughter (age 20) - only the Sovereignty of God knows what she will be doing.  

Now onto what I am thinking this morning: it's not about presents for me and I don't think it has been for years.  It's about presence.  It's about being together with those you love.  I think that is the key to discipleship too by the way - it's not curriculum or knowledge it the power of your presence letting Christ shine through you to someone else.

Henri Nouwen told the story of a student who, many years after graduation, returned to sit in his old professor's office where so many questions had been answered and so many problems had been solved. When the student entered he told his professor that he didn't need anything, he came just to visit, to be together. They sat for a while in silence and looked at each other. One broke the silence by telling the other how nice it was to see each other. The other agreed, and then there was silence. Then the student said, "When I look at you it is as if I am in the presence of Christ." The professor remembers that did not startle or surprise him and that he could only respond with, "It is the Christ in you who recognizes the Christ in me." The student replied with the most healing words Nouwen had heard in many years. "Yes, Christ indeed is in our midst. From now on, wherever you go, or wherever I go, all the ground between us will be holy ground."

Have a great Christmas filled with the presence of Jesus and the presence of those whom you love!
 

A View On Suffering

One of the best selling books of 1982 was Rabbi Harold Kushner’s book, “When Bad Things Happen to Good People.” Rabbi Kushner wrote the book out of his own personal grief experience in the loss of his young son Aaron to a rapid-aging disease. Harold Kushner felt a deep, aching sense of unfairness and he wonders out loud: “Why would God do this to me. I’m a Rabbi!” But then an even more haunting question came: “Why would He do this to Aaron? Why does this innocent, happy, outgoing little boy have to suffer so?” As Rabbi Kushner lived through this nightmare, he struggled with his own faith, studied various responses to tragedy and made a significant theological breakthrough. “Maybe God does not cause our suffering. Maybe our suffering, after all, is NOT the will of God.”

Harold Kushner said that he had before this time, grown up with the idea that we get what we deserve... that God blesses us when we are good, and punishes us when we get out of line. But then came Aaron’s undeserved illness... diagnosed when he was three years old, and then Aaron’s death two days after his 14^th birthday. And out of that came for Harold Kushner a new understanding of suffering. For, you see, deep down in his soul, he could not blame that on God. God doesn’t do cruel things to innocent children. He knew that God loved him and was suffering with him. Then he remembered that the psalmist didn’t say, “My pain comes from the Lord,” or “My tragedy comes from the Lord.” NO! He said, “My help comes from the Lord!” Rabbi Kushner came then to the conclusion that the question, “How could God do this to me?” is the wrong question to ask. The question is “God, see what’s happening to me – can you help me?”

In his suffering, Rabbi Kushner chose not to break down in self-pity. He chose not to break out with resentment. Rather, he chose to break through with trust in God! So did Moses, and Ruth and Job and Jesus... and so can we... because, you see, nothing... can separate us from God and His love. God is always with us in every circumstance of this life and indeed beyond this life. So nothing, not tragedies, not shootings, not storms, not illness, not even death, nothing can separate us from God’s love in Jesus Christ.

An Effective Discipleship Model

1st Step

• I do
• You Watch
• We talk

2nd Step

• I do 
• you help
• we talk

3rd Step

• You do
• I help
• we talk

4th Step

• You do 
• someone else watches
• the two of you talk

*Model gleaned from the Master Discipler!