A Valuable Lesson

A few Sundays ago, I walked away from a church service empowered. I had heard of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that visits his people when they're spiritually dry and feeling lonely. I felt empowered because I knew that I could never be worthy of such a visit.

Friends from that church reminded me that Saturday was the delivery date for their daughter. What a wonderful time. It made me think of bringing my kids home ten years ago. How small they were. How loud they were/are. How inexplicably overjoyed I was while being sleep deprived.

Monday goes by. Tuesday morning meets Ebony and I with bright red lights outside. Beaming bright into our bedroom signaling its nearness. 3:30AM and a neighborly sense of wonder and curiosity sat with us. Later that evening, my neighbor calls me with grave concern on his voice mixed with a hurriedness in his words. He asks a favor of me and I obliged. Wednesday morning hits and I find my neighbor outside, so naturally I begin to inquire about Tuesday.

He invites me into his man-cave garage and tells me his wife had given birth to a stillborn baby Wednesday morning upstairs in their bathroom. I felt stuck immediately. I didn't have a word, a story, nor a verse. Just silence . . . trying not to make things worse. I just listened and sat with him. Praying intermittently between his pauses that spanned 3 hours.

Then 1 Corinthians 9 visited me. Here I was thinking about myself and all I had to do, and it was like God using Paul to remind me to become all things to all men. Near the end of our time together, I was given the space to talk about Jesus because my neighbor brought Jesus up. Had I left earlier only concerned about myself and my schedule, I never would've learned about the kingdom that day.

God is here. That's good news. The radical availability for anyone to enter into the kingdom is good news. The king of that kingdom is the one who will wipe every tear from our eyes is Jesus. And as I got to talk about the tenderness of Jesus, I knew at that moment why Holy Spirit had me stay there so long.

Thursday afternoon I received a text from an out-of-state friend that he and his wife welcomed their second baby. I knew she was pregnant, but I hadn't paid attention to dates and what not. Joy erupted at the reading of the text followed by pain at the thought of my neighbors.

Then Saturday afternoon came and I received a picture of the beautiful baby girl that was scheduled to be born. Evoking more emotions of seeing my daughter. Then I recalled something else Paul said - "the kingdom of God is about righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit." At that moment I re-learned that I can rejoice with those who welcomed their babies into this world and I can weep with my neighbors who lost their son.

A few days later, I was sharing at a middle school chapel service about my week. I told those students that life was but a vapor, that God is always faithful, the opportunity to trust Jesus right now is available to them, and we all will go through things that feel awful and will hurt. That chapel service was a culmination of what we've learned as Jubilee is moving forward.

Jesus in Luke 4 told us that he would minister to all types of people in conditions that none of us would sign up for even if we knew Jesus would visit us. But when we are slow to speak and quick to listen to the Savior of the world, we can be reminded that even when life is heavy, that God is stretching you for many reasons. But one of the main ones I think is because in those times of heavy, we can look to him. We can begin again in Jesus.

That week shaped our entire month. But glory be to God . . . Jesus has been a constant friend to Jubilee Fellowship. We aren't behind. We're walking with Jesus.