Something Good

You asked for it. Now here comes the flood.

I know, three posts in three days. I am blowing the doors off of this thing. If you have not read the other two from Friday, please scroll down and read those first so you can get caught up on the events discussed in this one.

There are several reasons why I am about to put this on the World Wide Web for all to view. I guess the most obvious is that it is the single most important thing I have to say, and this is as close as I can get to a mountaintop from which to shout. Judging from the numerous complaints we’ve gotten concerning our lack of recent material, I would say that most of our friends and family check this page, and that is exactly the group of people I am eager to talk to.

Okay, enough small talk. I promised in one of the previous posts to talk more about Grayson’s condition, medically known as pyloric stenosis. It is basically when the pylorus muscle that wraps around the entrance to the small intestine becomes so large that it prevents food from going that way. I don’t need to explain how this could be a problem. The surgeon, very simply, cut that muscle, allowing the small intestine to bulge out one side and empty the stomach. I am not sure what they did to fix this before modern medicine, or how they figured out how that the pylorus was the cause. What I do know is that when the pediatrician told Lindsey that Grayson would need surgery, I could almost hear her spirit fall to the hospital room floor. I don’t mean to be dramatic, because I am fully aware of the families who spend months at the same children’s hospital that we were able to walk out of unscathed after only three days. Our hearts go out to those children we saw facing mountains much larger than ours. Nevertheless, it was a struggle at that moment to see through the difficulty of the situation to the other side where we would use this as a testimony to the goodness of our God. Which brings me to my point.

As to why we were faced with this circumstances, or why anyone faces sickness, disease, or hardship of any kind, I would refer you to the NY Times #1 bestseller The Shack by William P. Young. My interpretation to the answer to this question in our situation would be lengthy because I have told so many people what I am about to say here. Our three-day unnerving inconvenience was without a doubt an attempt of our enemy (and yours too, whether you acknowledge him as so or not) to bring us pain. As I launch into this, please know my prayer is that it will be received in love and without judgment, but stay with me because as I said this is the most important thing I could ever tell you. This post will serve as proof that God works all things, even pyloric stenosis, to the good of those who love him. If this has the impact on the lives reading it that I am praying it does, then something definitely good has come about.

I found it interesting, as I am sure you will, that the Latin translation for pylorus is gate, and stenosis is a form of the word narrow. Now that may not ring any bells unless you call to memory a passage from Sunday school

Matthew 7:13-15

13 "Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. 14 But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.

Now I won’t carry this analogy as far as I did with my middle school group. You can only imagine how interested they were when I told them to “follow the poo.” But, in all seriousness, please take note of the last five words above. I hope that something that you are about to read will push you toward the few.

Let me clear up what I believe is a perversion of the truth of this verse. I admit for years, without anyone telling me this, that I saw this narrow gate and subsequent narrow road as a metaphor for the difficulty in finding and maintaining… salvation, a life of prosperity and abundance, peace, joy, or whatever God had for me. If you are like me, this misinterpretation has kept you from pursuing this path, because it says right there it is hard and most people won’t get it. Why try? I kind of saw my self tight roping some gravelly trail with sharp drop offs on both sides, and I, somewhat, subconsciously decided it wasn’t worth it. Are you tracking with me? (props to Stovall www.celebration.org) What hit me between the eyes during the study of this verse was that the narrowness of the gate is not as descriptive of the path’s difficulty as it is of the exclusiveness of Him who is The Way. There is only one path. That is why it is narrow. Not to say there are not difficult parts (please refer back to the above fictional work), but that is not what makes the path to life so hard for most people to locate. It is their own attempt to feel in control of their future preventing them from submitting to the true control that God has over everyone’s future. It is a matter of faith.

There are many ways that won’t take you to this life Jesus referred to in Matthew, which is why it is referred to as wide. Some of you right now may be a living testimony that this wideness is not synonymous with ease or lack of problems. Some of the ways found by entering the wide gate are easy to recognize. Take other religions for example. While it is a flowery thought that all roads lead to the same God and eternity in heaven, it is, according to the Bible, untrue. Sorry Hollywood. There are others however, that you may not recognize. Like being a “good person”. As our pastor said today, holiness is a fruit, not the root of knowing God. I believe there are a lot of really “good” people who were awfully disappointed on the other side of the eulogy. But for all those ways, there is but one end. Destruction. No interpretation needed.

Now for the “good news”. Another recent sermon centered on the following passage

Matthew 16:15-18

15 "But what about you?" [Jesus] asked. "Who do you say I am?"
16 Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."
17 Jesus replied, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven. 18 And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.

You see, the revelation that Jesus was who he said he was, did what he said he was going to do, and is still madly in love with the thought of having a relationship with you is the only path that leads to what can only be described as… well, life. The now popular phrase that it is not religion, it is a relationship is based on this truth. God does not want to swat you with a giant stick when you do wrong. He wants to, and does, love you no matter what. The sooner you grasp that, and begin to know him like you know your friends and family, the sooner you will experience the life He has for you, which we know, again from the Bible, is more awesome than you can even think to ask for.

I know this was long, but I will say again, all the other stuff on this page and the rest of this crazy internet, won’t do you any good without God. For real. And I know this is Grayson’s page, for looking at pictures or hearing funny stories, and you were not prepared for this heavy bit of info, but if you are going to be a part of his life, it will only benefit him and more importantly you to make God, not just a part, but the center of your life by agreeing with me now wherever you are:

Jesus, without the eloquent words of an ordained minister, I just want to speak with you in a way that is more real than I have ever done before. I want to tell you that I love you, I need you in my life, and I want you to forgive me for living the way I have been, because you are the only one who can. I want to know you as my closest friend, and I believe that your death has saved me from the destruction I know is waiting for me at the end of the road I am on. Help me to enter the narrow gate now, and walk this narrow path that leads to life. In your name I ask these things. Amen.

If this is the first time your heart has expressed this sentiment or it is the fiftieth time that it has not made sense, please call Lindsey and I and we will talk it out together or celebrate, whatever the case may be. Either way, know that God is for you and loves you and that Grayson is depending on all of us to share our wonderful relationships with him in the next life, as well as this one.