Taking a deep dive into faith… and God’s love may sound fun and exciting, but oh, my goodness. It is scary!

Jumping Off…

There are few things scarier than jumping off a high cliff into a deep pool of water.

I remember a similar experience when we lived in Ekalaka, Montana near Trail’s End Ranch/Bible camp. The camp had an exciting adventure ride that they called the Zipline.

It was a wire stretched across a valley near the camp. To reach the top of the line, I had to climb a steep hill and some steps onto a platform. There, a staff person met me and fitted me into a harness. This harness was then attached to the line with a carabiner.

All I had to do was to step off the platform. The line would carry me safely to the other side in about 20 seconds.

I’d seen many others do it and survive the adventure,

But when it came time for me to step off, despite the knowledge that

• the line was strong enough to support me,
• others had done it and were fine,
• the people I’d trusted my life to were kind, knowledgeable, and wanted me to have fun,

I still found it almost impossible to step out into nothing and slide down that line to the other side.

After some hesitation, I did it.

And I’m glad I did.

I took the deep dive and found that I actually enjoyed it.

Landing Hard…

Sometimes in life, God doesn’t answer our prayers the way we want Him to.

When we are facing a terribly difficult time, we pray with all the faith we can muster, but the answer does not come.

At least not in the way or time we want it to.

We cry out with broken hearts and tears streaming our faces, “Why, Lord? Why won’t You answer me? I need the answer NOW!”

But no answer comes.

No miracle. No mountain moved. No answers to our frantic, urgent, heart-felt prayers.

We are called upon at times to trudge through a deep, dark, lonely valley alone.

Ah. Wait!

Not alone!

God is with us. His Spirit gives us strength. His Word gives us comfort. His people express their love and support.

This is what I mean with a deep dive into faith… and God’s love

We express our desire in songs and prayers to give it all to Jesus, to totally surrender to His will, to draw closer to God.

We glibly mouth the words to songs such as “A Closer Walk with Thee,” “Draw Me Closer,” and “Give It All to Jesus.”

But what is the pathway to accomplishing those high goals?

Taking a deep dive into faith… and God’s love.

When trouble hits us like a moving train, those songs fade from our memory, and we often cry out to God, “Why me?”

The better question is, “Why NOT me?”

After a lifetime of learning to trust God with many difficult, scary, and sometimes dangerous situations, God has called upon Dan and myself to take another deep dive into faith. Into His love.

I will never forget the look on the doctor’s face after he’d completed an EMG on my entire body, a test which took nearly two hours. Then he said, “I am sorry. You have ALS.”

It was a death sentence.

When I asked, “How long?”, he replied, “Two to three years.”

Previously, I’d looked up the disease (also called Lou Gehrig’s disease) because of the problems I’d been having with my health – problems that included loss of balance, slurred speech, and extreme fatigue.

I knew what the doctor was talking about.

ALS is a degenerative neurological disease in which your nerves die, and your muscles atrophy, leaving you helpless, speechless, breathless, and finally,

Dead.

But it doesn’t affect your brain. You know each horrible step downward.

When the doctor made his proclamation, tears blurred our eyes.

We stumbled out to get our next appointment, and I crumpled down when we came to the counter, overcome.

“It’s okay,” I said while the whole office staff looked at me with compassion and pity in their eyes. “I have a strong faith in God.”

The receptionist came around and gave me a humungous hug. During it, she said, “God will see you through this.”

How true those words!

The lifeline…

I can present my requests to God with thanksgiving. Phil. 4:6, “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.”

But I can’t tell God what to do. Or how to do it. Or even when to do it!

When Paul wrote his letters to the churches, he was in prison. Not a nice, comfy prison like we have today. Those prisons were cold, full of rats and spiders, and they did not provide food.

Paul knew that many of the Christians he was writing to might experience the same kind of persecution he experienced. Yet he never once expressed a prayer that asked God to deliver them (or him!) from his prison.

I like the story of Samuel Rutherford who was a pastor in the 1600s. He had lost his first wife and seven of his nine children, and yet he never gave up on his faith.

He wrote, “Christ and His cross together are sweet company. My prison is my palace, my losses are rich losses, my pain easy pain, my heavy days are holy and happy days.” (Samuel Rutherford, The Loveliness of Christ” Selections form the Letters of Samuel Rutherford, Moscow, ID, Community Christian Ministries, 2018, p.55)

Those words ring in my heart. “My prison is my palace.”

The prison of my deteriorating body.

The prison of my limited ministry.

The prison of my shameful state.

My prison becomes my palace because God lives there with me.

What to do when “even if” becomes reality…

So EVEN IF He chooses not to answer my fervent prayer for healing, I will yield to His will and turn the matter over to Him, thanking Him for His grace, love, and mercy.

How can I survive this deep dive into faith… and God’s love?

1. Don’t focus on me.

It’s all about Him and His will for my life.

2. Bring my requests to Him but yield to His will in all things.

Every day. Multiple times a day. Yield. Trust. Obey.

3. Give Him the glory.

Thank Him for every little thing and every big thing.

4. Don’t worry about tomorrow.

Focus on today and doing God’s will today. Find a song. Give a testimony to a nurse or a doctor.

5. Stay in His Word.

Feed on His Word constantly. Memorize it. Live it.

Enjoying the ride…

Despite the eventual loss of my voice,

The loss of being able to swallow and eat the things I love,

And, eventually, the loss of the ability to walk, type, do my diamond art, crochet, and even button my shirt, I will praise Him.

“Surely God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid. The Lord, the Lord Himself is my strength and my defense; He has become my salvation.” Isa. 12:2 (NIV)

It’s a breathless moment when you stand on that platform with the ground far below, and know you must step off into nothingness with only a slender line that holds you safe.

We’ve been there. We’ve taken the plunge into the unknown, and we are living with it each day. But our support and help is not a slender wire.

It is God.

And His Word.

We have been called of God to take a deep dive into faith… and into God’s love.

We will dive deeply, enjoy the ride, and praise Him for each moment.