Life can change on a dime. One minute you are going one direction completely oblivious to the challenge that is just around the corner waiting on you. It can be a pleasant surprise in some instances. "Hey, Jim, we got together and think you should be the next man over development here. It comes with a raise."
Yet, your mind probably went worse-case scenario when the devotion started. Much like my dad in 1975, driving on a golf course one Sunday with his golfing buddy Frank, when the golf pro showed up on the hole about midway through the game saying, "Don, David's shattered his arm in an accident, and they took him to the hospital." My dad paid me back later in life when I was at home in our new home of Lubbock on a lazy Sunday afternoon when my dad's friend Ed called saying, "David, your dad was taken downtown with a DWI last night, you need to come to Houston."
Those events just leave you flat-footed. Suck the wind out of you. You find yourself, momentarily, staring at the wall sorting in your mind between disbelief and the logical notion of what to do first. We provide a prayer list each Sunday of people who are dealing with health issues from disease to accident. At some point, they were introduced to the situation, either startlingly quickly in an accident or over a week or so as doctors wait for test results, but the news, once delivered, creates the same momentary pause with what to do next and I can't believe what I just heard.
Where do we turn when such events happen? Christ has a moment in John in which disciples turn and leave him after he notes some still do not believe and that they (we) can only come to him if the Father grants it. He turns to the twelve and asks, "Do you want to go away as well?" to which Peter says, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life...." (6:65 - 68)
God hears us. God listens. God answers. As Christ notes, "I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger and whoever believes in me shall not thirst." (6:35) We pray for each other in our daily walk as well as our own needs. We pray that God give us the words of eternal life to hear, listen, and take to heart and that we are there to comfort those who are in the midst of issues in life.
Hope Men's Ministry
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