Life Matters - October 25, 2023
While I do still have business and “loose ends” to take care of in Milbank, for those of you wondering, yes, it is true, we have moved from Milbank to Mitchell. Brawny young men (sons and sons-in-law) loaded and packed our stuff into trailers, hauled them the three hours to our new abode and unloaded them. As we moved in, I was again amazed at the ability of ladies to transform a house and make it a home. My wife, three daughters, three friends, and a granddaughter arranged the kitchen, the living room, bedrooms, even plaques on the walls in such a way that by evening the freshly moved into house had a homey, cozy feel to it. So did the lovely people who stayed for Sunday. “Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord.” That “children” included grandchildren. And my thankfulness includes the wife God has gifted me with. God has also gifted us together. With family good friends and a church family. We are so thankful for the good help of family and friends. A friend hauled a trailer with building materials for a new house we’ve started a few miles outside of Mitchell.
We loaded on Friday afternoon and by Saturday afternoon were settled into our daughter and family’s house that we will need to vacate in the spring when they return from a mission field in Africa. The plan is to have our new house move-in ready by then.
Plans, however, can be interrupted, as we were starkly reminded of 12 years ago when I rode a 4’x 8’ sheet of roof sheathing 12’ down a steep house roof, fell another 22’ and came out of a coma three weeks later in the Sanford hospital in Sioux Falls. We should say, “If the Lord wills, we will do this or that” (James 4:16) has taken on a new dimension of meaning since then.
Politicians, it seems, are often given to making strong statements about winning. About what they will do after they’ve won a given election. About their own fitness to achieve those goals. That level of confidence may well have some good aspects to it, but as viewed through the lens of faith has so many variables that the claims become obsolete without the insertion of “Lord willing.” It is good always to be zealous of good works. (Titus 2:15) It is also good to have a realistic humility about our own limitations. Even men in seats of power have those. Because they are men.
God only is unlimited. He is unlimited in the scope of His power. Why, then, is there evil in this world? Why do bad things happen to good people? Why is there hurt, mayhem, and bloodshed? Why are there senseless killings? Why does God let it all happen? Why did God let me fall within inches of death? (Literally, as I landed close to a dump trailer) Why? Why? Why? Someday we will know even as we are known. (I Corinthians 13:12) For reasons we don’t, nor need to understand, God has limited Himself. By giving us freedom of choice and not making us programmed robots, He has limited Himself to calling us by His grace. His grace which we must choose and come to of our own free will. He is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to the knowledge of the truth. (John 8:32) “Therefore choose life.” Life Matters!