Because I have to be.
Sounds like the answer to a question. But what was the question? The question was –
Why?
OK – but that begs the question –
why what?
To which the answer is –
I’ll be OK.
Confused?
Me too – for a while.
Maybe for too long.
And now, here I am a year and a half later thinking – I really need to remember this.
Yeah – I originally wrote this back in April of 2015.
In February of this year – 2016 – one of our dogs was diagnosed with cancer.
He almost made it to remission. Almost.
It was hard. Being so close. Then being on a trial drug that looked so promising.
And then the fight was over.
And I’m going through all this – again.
The updates that I make to the original will be in text like this.
It just came to me this morning –
And again after Dewey succumbed to lymphoma.
And I can’t help but wonder – how many more times?
I’ll be OK – because I have to be.
It’s not like God drops a whole bunch of people here on this earth just for the heck of it. No matter how much some of us would like to believe that He doesn’t even really exist and that we are just here by chance with no objective other than to exist and have fun, the theories that these folks hang on to just don’t hold water if they’re examined closely at all. I’ve said before –
I think it takes more faith to believe that God doesn’t exist that it takes to believe that He does. The odds of all this being random chance are beyond astronomical – and no one would bet their life on anything with that kind of odds.
So – if I’m here because God put me here for a reason – as He said He did for all of us –
Jer 29:11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
then I’m left with three options.
- do everything I can to keep His plan from coming true
- pretend He doesn’t exist and that there is no plan – which will have the same outcome as option #1
- do everything I can to follow His plan for me – knowing that I can’t exactly follow it, but can at least come as close as possible.
Assuming I choose option 3 – which I have – then it stands to reason that I have to be OK. Everything that’s getting me down – and keeping me down way too much – has to be temporary. And it’s only as bad as I allow it to be – which has been pretty bad. And – it’s only for as long and as often as I allow it to be.
I was having lunch with a couple friends from church the other day, and one of them said something about how, as someone who teaches about the Bible, there are things that we should know. My response – what I know in my head isn’t always what I know in my heart. We’re all like that at times.
We also – being human – don’t have perfect memories or perfect responses when stuff happens. We’re not alone that way –
first, we read …
Jesus Predicts Peter’s Denial
26:31-35 pp — Mk 14:27-31; Lk 22:31-34
Mt 26:31 Then Jesus told them, “This very night you will all fall away on account of me, for it is written:
“ ‘I will strike the shepherd,
and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.’ 32 But after I have risen, I will go ahead of you into Galilee.”
Mt 26:33 Peter replied, “Even if all fall away on account of you, I never will.”
Mt 26:34 “I tell you the truth,” Jesus answered, “this very night, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times.”
Mt 26:35 But Peter declared, “Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you.” And all the other disciples said the same.
and then …
Peter Disowns Jesus
26:69-75 pp — Mk 14:66-72; Lk 22:55-62; Jn 18:16-18, 25-27
Mt 26:69 Now Peter was sitting out in the courtyard, and a servant girl came to him. “You also were with Jesus of Galilee,” she said.
Mt 26:70 But he denied it before them all. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said.
Mt 26:71 Then he went out to the gateway, where another girl saw him and said to the people there, “This fellow was with Jesus of Nazareth.”
Mt 26:72 He denied it again, with an oath: “I don’t know the man!”
Mt 26:73 After a little while, those standing there went up to Peter and said, “Surely you are one of them, for your accent gives you away.”
Mt 26:74 Then he began to call down curses on himself and he swore to them, “I don’t know the man!”
Immediately a rooster crowed. 75 Then Peter remembered the word Jesus had spoken: “Before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times.” And he went outside and wept bitterly.
And that’s where we get led off God’s path that He has planned out for us.
No – I didn’t literally deny knowing Jesus, not like Peter did.
But in truth – when things like this happen and we “forget” about Jesus and how we said we’d do anything to follow Him,
aren’t we denying Him? In a different way, yes. But a denial, all the same.
But there’s another verse, from Luke’s account of the same events, we also read –
Lk 22:31 “Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat. 32 But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.”
Jesus knows that we aren’t perfect. He knows that we will have times like these.
And He asks us to strengthen others when we turn back.
And so here I am – writing with the prayer that it will help someone reading this.
When the rich ruler from Matthew 19 turned away from Jesus because what Jesus asked of him was more than he wanted to give – we read the following –
Mt 19:25 When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and asked, “Who then can be saved?”
Mt 19:26 Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
Mt 19:27 Peter answered him, “We have left everything to follow you! What then will there be for us?”
Mt 19:28 Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. 29 And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life. 30 But many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first.
Having chosen option 3 from above – I ask the same questions as the disciples. And the answer comes back the same. Even if I have to leave some thing and / or some one in order to follow His plan for me – I have to do it. There’s really no other choice,
I have to follow whatever He lays out for me.
It’s the only way to be OK.
And I will be OK.
On His path and with His strength,
Where all things are possible.
And I really need to work on remembering.
Until then, I guess I’ll keep company with the rest of us who are like Peter was – forgetful but still committed.