So yeah, things have ben a little hectic around here the past two months.  Between finances, jobs, sickness, and family issues, it's been been tiring.  But it has made me think about how we as Christians approach God, why we approach Him, what we take seriously and what we don't. 

I recall in my mind's eye Biblical exhortations such as the ones above that should cause us to think of things on equal planes in God's eyes....stage 4 cancer and a child with the flu are equally "difficult" to cure from God's side, even though from our side we approach them much differently.

When we get sick (or have the ever-frequent "headache"), often times most Christians think first of Tylenol or Theraflu before Yeshua or Adonai.  When the doctor tells you you have "the C word", you begin to move mountains: you start shifting around and lining up finances to pay for treatments, you become open to travelling to distant places to see "the best specialists", your family once again regains priority over long work schedules, you begin to contact prayer chains not only in your churchbut in churches you haven't even been to before, and you pray with fervent voice to God to heal you of this deathly woe.

When the doc says "You've got the flu, drink plenty of fluids and take this prescription and it should be gone in a week or so", you likely don't even mention it to anyone outside your own household, unless you want a couple days off of work or someone to cover for you at Sunday school.  And prayer? "Why would I need to pray when I've got antibiotics?"  And don't forget our poo-pooing of the seriousness of our situation by adding "God has more important things to take care of than my little cold."

Isn't each case just as easy for Him to take care of?  More than that, doesn't He want to take care of each situation equally?

The problem (obviously) isn't with God, the problem is that we don't have faith.

Let's be honest.  Why are we willing to cry out to God for cancer but not for colds?  Truthfully, because we don't need God for colds, because we have other options we know are going to work.  Cancer though, that's different..."that could kill me" and while there are lots of "treatments" that have helped people overcome it, it's still enough of an unknown where we figure "since I don't know what else will work, I might as well try God".

In other words, we got to Him not really because we think He is going to come through for us, or even because He wants us to come to Him, but because we're out of other options.

God's smart.  He allows things bigger than we can control to come into our lives specifically so that we'll get our eyes off us and back onto Him where they should be.  But shouldn't we, the people who identify ourselves by His title -- "Christians" -- keep our eyes on Him to begin with?

With everything going on right now, of course I want people to be praying for us.  But I always want people to be praying for us!  Prayer is just as important when there's money in the bank, everyone's healthy, jobs are looking great and spiritual walks couldn't be better as it is when all those things (and more) are rapidly declining.  Which is why I say "Why do you want to pray for me NOW?" --  just because our circumstances look worse now than they did a short time ago doesn't mean I need more prayer than I did before...it means that now, you're more likely to pray for me because you didn't think I needed prayer before. :)

We love you guys, and are praying for you daily.

In His service, and yours,
jason