God's Presence can become "very real and quite continual"

My father was a devoted Christian and family man. Unfortunately he suffered from heart disease and had a devastating series of heart attacks that nearly killed him in 1968. He was barely 50 years old and his children ranged in age from 14-17. Some months after the crisis passed, in a note to a relative who was dying, my Dad wrote:

“My turn was last Spring, [to be near death].... I was convinced and resigned to the fact that it was my turn to pass into an eternal future with my Maker, but it seems that He must have other plans. (Certainly, after my heart stopped 3 times in quick succession it was anything but too likely that I would be back home as I am now.)

But for one thing I am grateful; I had lots of hours and days to actually come closer to my God, through His Son, of course. And I found that as long as I would do that I was never alone. His Almighty Presence became very real and quite continual in the Intensive Care Unit of that hospital. And, marvellously indeed, if one places oneself completely in His hands, and becomes entirely willing to be an instrument for His will (happy to accept whatever that may be), then the concern is no longer there: it is a great comfort indeed to realize that there is such a pilot at the helm.

I want to help you not to overlook this, for this wonderful faith is the greatest asset we can have and enjoy when we are ill.”

My father was given another year to put his affairs in order before passing away in 1970. He was 52.

OUR GREATEST ASSET

I discovered a copy of the note, from which I just quoted, in his Bible some years later. His words were true. Faith in Christ has been my greatest asset during 25 years of chronic illness. I anticipate with joy my eternal future with my Maker (and reunion with my Dad who’s been there nearly 40 years now).

Whenever I come across somebody who suffers life threatening illness, or experiences the death of a loved-one, my first thought is” “I hope they have a personal relationship with Jesus, Christ.” They too can experience “His Almighty Presence” that becomes “very real and quite continual” that both my father knew and I have experienced. And it has been the experience of people throughout the ages, as they experienced terrible illnesses, loss and sorrow.

Many years ago when I could still walk, my wife and I were in Prince Edward Island, Canada’s birthplace. One day we saw an old neglected graveyard tucked out of the way from the community where it’s located. Some of the graves dated back to the 1700s. As we walked among the weathered and faded tombstones, we came across one that stood out from the others. The inscription mentioned two children who perished in a house fire in the 1840s. I stood in front of that tombstone trying to imagine the unimaginable sorrow of the grieving parents who erected that marker. I have a vivid imagination but my mind recoiled and refused to imagine something so terrible.

The most I could hope was that those parents were Christians. Christ could have been their Comforter and consolation. They have been gone for more than a hundred years. If they knew and trusted Christ, their sorrow would be over. They would be united with Him and their children.

The Bible tells us, “And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying; and there shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away. Then He who sat on the throne said, “Behold I make all things new.” (Revelation 21.4-5a)

I don’t know what your sorrow or pain may be, but give it to God. His presence in your life can become very real and quite continual.

MP

One of the richest regions on Earth

When you think about the richest places in the world, where do you think of? Riyadh, Saudi Arabia? Dubai? New York? Well, according to the latest Canadian edition of the Reader’s Digest, one of the world’s most affluent areas is Leduc, Alberta, Canada. The cover of the magazine says, “THE HAPPINESS INDEX: Canada’s richest city measures quality of life.” The article inside the magazine appears under the title: “Rich, Yes, But Happy?: One of the world’s most affluent communities, the Alberta county of Leduc spent $90,000 to measure its citizens’ feelings of well-being. Was it worth it?” The article states:

“In 2005 Leduc, on the basis of the familiar gross domestic product (GDP) economic yardstick, was named one of the richest regions on Earth. Yet, even as its success was the envy of other communities, some of its residents wondered whether GDP was telling the whole story.”

I was one of those residents the Reader’s Digest interviewed for the article. I’ve lived in Beaumont (in the middle of the county) for over twenty years ― and in the general area for all of my 56 years. I remember when the Leduc county was an ordinary place, filled with ordinary people who saw themselves as ordinary folks. They invested themselves in others instead of “portfolios”. They didn’t mind driving older vehicles or drying their laundry on clothes lines.

ACQUISITION AND PRETENSE

Then they got rich and full of themselves. They built monster houses in exclusive cul-de-sacs that don’t allow clothes lines. They drove new expensive vehicles with air-conditioning and electric windows. Blackberries became a status symbol rather than dessert.

I was inoculated from the affluence around me. Being crippled with MS for most of my adult life, and unable to work, all that affluence passed by me. I have a unique vantage point to observe “one of the richest regions on Earth.”

In the middle of the new Beaumont is old Beaumont where my little stucco house and yard back on to the main thoroughfare going through town into the heart of Leduc county. The BMWs, Lexus’s and Escalades towing large RV trailers drive past. I often privately wonder if the excessive luxury and show is really an attempt to compensate for interior poverty.

Behind a massive lilac hedge that insulates my yard from the hustle, I sit in my wheelchair feeding birds that live in the maple trees that predate the affluence. Again I wonder ― Who’s richer?

Granted, the global recession has even hit Leduc County ― albeit not as hard as elsewhere ― but things have slowed. Perhaps that’s a good thing. People may realize anew they really do need each other, and trade their independence for interdependence, and personal autonomy for community.

Perhaps.

MP

Early spiritual inklings

“From our own childhoods we remember that before our own elders thought us capable of “understanding” anything, we already had spiritual experiences as pure and momentous as any we have undergone since. ... From Christianity itself we learn there is a level ― in the long run the only level of importance ― on which the learned and the adult have no advantage at all over the simple and the child.”

─ C.S. Lewis (The Problem of Pain)

Pain and the path to spiritual healing

I do not believe there are any circumstances to small or too big that we are unable to be of service to the Kingdom of God. Mother Teresa said this about service: “It is not how much we do, but how much love we put in the doing. It is not how much we give, but how much love we put in the giving.” It’s how we see the art of serving that makes all the difference.

When I take my grandchildren to a playground, invariably I encounter a frazzled parent of an energetic pre-schooler. I try to strike up a conversation to encourage them. Sometimes they want to “vent” and so I use the occasion to practice my listening skills.

Even in degenerative disability there are many opportunities for service. They come in the oddest forms and at the oddest times. From the limitations of my electric wheelchair, opportunities for service seem to pop up out of the blue. I know in my heart they are not random ― God sends me the opportunities to serve Him by serving people.

CHRIST IN THE FIRE OF HUMAN SUFFERING

About fifteen years ago, I was asked to visit a young man who had a terrible version of the disease I suffer from: multiple sclerosis. His name was Derek. Back then, there were no effective drugs to stop or slow the progress of MS. Derek’s career as an engineer was destroyed just as it was beginning. His wife left him. I found Derek wheelchair-bound in a dingy apartment. He wanted to die.

He allowed me to enter his anguished reality because our common disease gave me entrance into his world. My wheelchair and pain spoke to his pain. I was able to tell him with authority: “Derek, we are not alone in this fire. There is another with us: “Jesus Christ is here. I feel his presence.” Derek looked at me through blood-shot eyes, tears streaming down his cheeks, and he said, “He is? I don’t feel him.” Of course he didn’t. His shock was too new, his pain and sorrow were too fresh. He felt deserted by God, but that did not mean his perception was accurate. It’s impossible to see clearly when vision is blurred by tears.

Derek was a terrified and frantic man. His wild desperation made him incapable of receiving comfort from the Comforter. Derek reminded me of a hungry infant so ravenous and upset it will not accept the bottle of milk at its lips. He could not yet be helped because he was too frantic for assistance.

Derek was like a drowning man wildly flailing, clutching, kicking and grabbing ― he could not be rescued ― at least in that state.

Derek would not accept God without divine physical deliverance from multiple sclerosis. He wanted nothing other than his old life back. He only wanted God on Derek’s terms, not God’s terms. Do you see what Derek’s problem was?

THE POTTER AND THE CLAY

The spiritual stakes of Derek’s grief were horribly high. With time he would either surrender his predicament to will of God’s wisdom or he would rebel and become bitter and angry. After Derek’s panic and shock subsided from acquiring a catastrophic disease and losing his wife and career, he would have the opportunity to ask (not demand) “Why?”

Only in surrender do we become pliable in the hands of God. He is the potter, we are the clay. Only in surrender to the will of God can we discover the reason for which we were created. Rebellion spawns disdain for the reason we were created. At the core of the human soul rests a desire to love perfectly and to be loved perfectly. That is only possible by knowing Christ. Only in Christ are we able to receive perfect love and begin to love perfectly. This is the reason we were created.

Was Derek ever delivered from his multiple sclerosis? I don’t know, I did not see him again.

Miracles happen. But by the very nature of miracles, they are rare. That is why they are miracles. Jesus cured one paralytic at the pool of Bethesda. The Gospel account leaves us to conclude many others were left uncured. More often than not people need adversity or pain in order to discover their abject need for God.

C.S. Lewis said, “God whispers in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pain: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” Many of us need to remain uncured of physical affliction in order to be roused to God’s call for spiritual healing.

MP

_________________________________

This article also appeared in the June 29th edition of Canada's Western Catholic Reporter weekly newspaper under the title "Pain can be the pathway to spiritual healing" (
http://www.wcr.ab.ca/columns/markpickup/2009/markpickup062909.shtml)