A Little Different. . .

Well, my blog today will be a little different than usual. I'd like to request prayer for my dad. If you've read some of our past blogs, or if you've seen us in concert, you know a little bit of what's going. Our dad has been having heart trouble; having the heart of an athlete, his normal heart rate is in the fifties, but for over a year-and-a-half now, he has been spiking up over one-twenty. He's had numerous procedures to try to correct the problem, and none of them seem to hold for very long. On top of that, he also has a rare problem that messes with his balance and makes him sick, a lot like vertigo, but worse. He is going to Ann Arbor on Friday to see what can be done about all of this, and we pray that the doctors will find the answer. One possible solution to the inner-ear problem is that they remove part of his inner ear. It could cure his inbalance and sickness, but he would be deaf in that ear.
Sometimes our family looks at this situation, along with dad's recent accident in which a seventeen-year-old girl hit him and totalled his work van, and we ask God the number-one asked question He gets: why? We don't always understand, but God has a good reason for it. I was reading the story of Lazarus the other day and, although I hope our situation turns out NOTHING like Lazarus, there are some things to be found for comfort. I realized that, although the people begged Jesus to heal Lazarus, Jesus had a good reason for not healing him. If he had healed Lazarus, he never would've gotten to raise him from the dead! I believe sometimes God allows difficult situations in our lives so He can bring a bigger miracle out of it.
I also see that perhaps Mary and Martha, and even Lazarus, may have needed a little reminder. The Bible states many times how Jesus loved that family, and even stayed in their home on occasion. Perhaps they had gotten used to Jesus. Perhaps they knew Who He was, but had just let it slip into the back of their minds. However, when they saw Him raise Lazarus from the dead, I'm pretty sure they knew exactly Who He was! But perhaps also Jesus wanted to remind them just how much He loved them. Actions speak louder than words. Jesus gave them an incredible miracle, and brought them out of the saddest, most difficult time in their lives, to remind them that He saw and loved them more than they could ever know.
Maybe that's what God wants us to know. We don't always know exactly why God does what He does, but all of it comes back to one simple reason for which He does everything:
"For God so loved. . ."

-Joshua