We were gathering that early evening because a few days earlier Laura had seen this video. She shared it with our friends, and they had, in turn, shared it with others, and the response was immediate and overwhelming. People were asking us how they could give money to help. The image of a grown man in tears because he hasn't eaten for two days is hard to get out of your mind.
Just like God intended, God had spoken through his creation, and his words were unmistakable: "I am here." But that wasn't all God was saying to me in that moment, for because I had read the words of a much older book, I also knew that the God who exists is also for me.
"Truth is still truth no matter whose mouth it falls out of. Had Hitler stood up and proclaimed, 'Berlin is the capital of Germany,' he would have been right, and to argue with that fact just because Hitler said it would be asinine."
"If you were to let the tidal wave of divine love knock you over where you stand, releasing in the rushing water all your sin and regret and guilt and shame, assured that God sees all that is in you yet rejoices that his Son Jesus willingly stretched out his arms and bled and died in your place to make a way for you to come back home, then you'd finally be in the one and only position in which loving others in that same way is possible."
"We had decided to take a step out of our boat and see if the raging waves would hold us up. That morning outside the supermarket, our feet were still falling—hadn't hit the waves yet—and it wasn't looking like the waves were going to be able to hold us up. In fact, I was wondering if car trouble meant we shouldn't just fling ourselves back in the boat, that is, return home, put our pajamas back on, and spend the rest of the day binge watching Columbo."
"God may utter his words at a given time, but his words are unlike our words that slowly get dispersed as they reverberate through the air and eventually cease. When God speaks his words, they continue to resound into eternity future. Just as God exist in the eternal present, so do his words."
If "there may yet be hope" in the midst of the obliteration of God's people—if even then they can return to the King and find not merely pardon but one who will still their hearts, take up their cause, and fight for them—then perhaps there may yet be hope for you and me even now.
I sat in a hospital that was—well, let's just say it was different than the one I'd sat in almost two months prior.
"We sat in our pajamas on the couch under a blanket and did what you do on Sunday nights. We watched a rerun of Columbo." And something about it made me worship.
"As I type these words, a woman Laura and I only met a few weeks ago is cutting into my wife's abdomen in search of a mass that she will then snip off and remove from my wife's body." And that fact puts a new perspective on things.