For years as I’ve turned the lights out and climbed into bed, I’ve thanked God for His unbelievable blessing in my life. A warm bed, a safe home, all the comforts I could want are so evident at that
time of day, but beyond that I consider my family, our health, our wonderful relationships with each other.
I’m humbled that for 20 years I’ve been able to focus my career on walking with wounded hearts to experience the healing intimacy of Christ in you, the Hope of Glory! I walk away from my office
regularly feeling so blessed that once again I’ve been a first-hand witness of Jesus shining light in the midst of unimaginable darkness.
I’ve seen spontaneous worship break out in my office as a dear soul experiences the depth of the Father’s love in places that would
certainly classify that love as beyond comprehension. And I get to witness it over and over.
Why me? Why have I had this privilege to walk so intimately in people’s lives to see the hand of God reach into a heart in
consistently unique ways and set people free. Why me?
Why me? Why do I have two grown sons that still light up my life whenever their faces come to my mind? Why have I been blessed with a wife of almost 30 years who has loved me, trusted me, followed me, and shared her heart with me? Why have
I been able to watch her love our kids and call out God’s deepest design in them?
Why was I blessed with a daughter from China when I thought I’d never know what it was like to have a daughter? To hear her call me Daddy and to love to snuggle with me and to open her heart to me as we talk about
Jesus' endless love? Why do I have two amazing bonus daughters that love me and let me into their heart too? Why do I get to see the joy of my grandson, a little boy that lights up when I walk into the room? Why so much? Why me?
Why me? Why when I’m with pancreatic cancer do 100s, if not 1000s of friends and family reach out and love us, serve us, stop their lives for us, cry with us, and overwhelm us with an outpouring of gifts, notes, messages of well-wishing and prayers. Why me?
I’m not really a Count-Your-Blessings kind of Christian. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for gratefulness to our Creator. But we often tell others to count their blessings as though that is the solution to our struggles. It is not. Jesus is.
If “Count Your Blessings” is the solution, then we really don’t need Jesus. We just need to find enough blessings to change our attitude. In reality we need to find Jesus, whether we have many circumstantial blessings, or we have almost all pain and loss throughout our lives, Jesus is our Rest, our Peace.
As Paul describes in Philippians, his contentment is based on the power of Christ. Whether many blessings, or great lack, his rest is founded on Jesus. He wasn’t counting his blessings to obtain contentment; his eyes were fixed on Jesus. The temporal was up and down; the eternal was fixed and sure.
When we are shaken by our circumstances, it is only God’s reminder that He has so much more He is eager to teach about His eternal, immovable, deeply satisfying, intimate love He has for each of us.
Why me? Because the Creator of the Universe said:
“I’m going to show My greatest glory yet, in that I love Dale so much that I am going to pour out a life in him, an eternal one, that is beyond his comprehension up to this point, because he has no real perspective for anything but a
temporary fallen world. I will walk intimately with him through this falleness in way to always be pointing him to the shadows of the glory that lies ahead. He is my beloved, and I am his." (Song of Solomon 6:3)
