He'll Show Up

If there be anyone who's going through, We have an answer to the problem for you; Trust and obey and never give in, Only the strong shall survive and win. Just ask the question and the answer shall come, Just exercise your faith and know He's The One.

If there is no sign, Keep this in mind, He'll show up on time.

Note: After reading some of the comments, I thought it best to add this to my post. What you're about to read happened many years ago in my life. It was one of the most difficult days in my life and although it remains a vivid memory for me, it is no longer painful. Looking back on that day, I realize just how gracious God was to me, giving me strength because I had none.

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I listened intently as the man directed me where I needed to go:

“Go to the end of this corridor, turn left and follow it until you get to the stairway. Go down the stairway and then go through the door. Once inside, you’ll see a steel door with a window. Ring the buzzer next to the window and someone will come to the door to help you.”

I’m not even sure now that I was even listening; all I know is he lost me after, “Go to the end of this corridor”.

The corridor was dimly lit, everything about this place reeked with gloom. As I opened the door, I could feel its weight, resist me pulling the doorknob. It felt like someone was on the other side, trying to prevent me from entering; but I managed to open it. I heard the loud thud as the door closed behind me. I walked into a poorly lit corridor with faded yellow brick walls; the concrete floor didn’t attempt to hide its barren look. There was nothing about this place that welcomed visitors. I really didn’t want to be here but I had no choice; there were no volunteers when we were told that someone needed to come and identify the body of my brother. Emotionally, everyone was on life support. I’d seen dead bodies before but they were always someone else’s relative; their life never mattered to me. It was different this time.

It was so eerily quiet until I rang the buzzer to interrupt the silence. Every moment seemed to slice into infinity, stretching out the time, until I pressed my finger against the buzzer again. Finally, a Black man arrived, looking through the window at me and opening the door.

“What’s the name?”

The question was cold and lacking any emotion. I looked at the empty expression on his bearded face, his brown eyes staring at me as if to ask, what do you want?

My answer was hesitant. I didn’t forget where I was, but I wasn’t certain what to say.

“I’m here for my brother.”

It was as if I expected him to go tell my brother, "Someone wants to see you."

My thoughts were tattered, up to this point I didn’t feel any emotions, but I would soon discover what was hidden just below the surface of my life. I gave him my brother’s name and the loud metal door clanged shut while he disappeared behind it.

It was only minutes but it seemed much more like an hour as he returned pushing a steel table, a white cloth covered the outlined shape of a body. He motioned for me to walk to the left and I stopped by a window. At that moment, I wondered, why am I standing here? I wanted to get out of there but my feet wouldn’t move. Did I expect to see my brother walk up to me and smile? He slid the window back and asked me,

“Are you ready?”

I nodded, not conscious of the bobbing motion of my head, consenting for him to proceed. He pulled the cloth back and there was my brother; lying quietly as though he was sleeping. I wanted to call his name as if I could somehow wake him from this slumber; but his eyelids were frozen. I looked at his body and saw the entry wounds from the gunshots and the facial scars from being beaten. I stood there in the silence of this naked corridor, staring at his lifeless body; time for me seemed to stop.

Random moments of our lives flashed through my mind, as though it were a slide show; years reduced to brief moments of the bond he and I shared. Words were trapped inside me. Did I think that by not saying anything he really wasn’t dead? Finally, my eyes moved from the body of my brother, looking at the face of the attendant. There were no words to exchange, the up and down motion from my head was the only confirmation he needed. He slid the white cloth over my brother’s head and wheeled him away.

I stood there surrounded by those bare walls of brick, it was over so quickly; I stood alone in the silence of my thoughts.

I don’t know how people deal with death, we are all so different. But laying there on that table, I saw something that attendant couldn’t see; I saw the lifeless body of my brother, someone whom I hugged, laughed with, played with, ate with and slept with as a child. King David said this about his son after learning he was dead:

“But now that he is dead, why should I go on fasting? Can I bring him back again? I will go to him, but he will not return to me.”¹

I think about Jesus, and how God must have felt as Christ hung there in the silence on the cross. How conflicted God must have felt as,

“Jesus called out with a loud voice, ‘Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.’ When he had said this, he breathed his last.”²

How it must have pained God as they laid the body of Christ in that tomb. Until finally, on the third day, the Son of God rose from the dead. How it must have pleased the Father that Jesus rose from the dead, fulfilling what had been set in motion before you or I ever existed.

We, who call on the name of Jesus, wait in hope for His return. We believe He will show up, not just in the end time,

“…for He Himself has said, ‘I WILL NEVER DESERT YOU, NOR WILL I EVER FORSAKE YOU,’…”³

We are unlike those who have no interest in Christ. They are like that attendant in the morgue; performing the ritual task of a job. But if they knew who Jesus is, their whole outlook would change. No matter what you face in life, Christ will show up to get you over, above and beyond your circumstances. I've put my life in His hands. I've seen Him show up. He's done it for me; He'll show up for you.

“ 'Men of Galilee,' they said, ‘why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.’ ”⁴

“For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.”⁵

Heavenly Father,

You are the great I AM. There is nothing too hard for You. You are holy, just, righteous and true. You have written Your laws in our hearts and put Your Spirit in our lives. Who are we to receive such love and kindness from You? Your grace is beyond measure and Your love knows no end. Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. Lord, You Show Up, always when I call, when I need You, You are there for me. Thank You Lord for showing up, always and forever. Amen.

Footnotes:

1. 2 Samuel 12:23, NIV
2. Luke 23:46, NIV
3. Hebrews 13:5,NASB
4. Acts 1:11,NIV
5. 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17, NIV

References:

1. The NIV Study Bible, Edited by Kenneth Barker, Donald Burdick, John Stek, Walter Wessel and Ronald Youngblood, Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49530, USA
2. The Ryrie Study Bible (New American Standard Version), Edited by Charles C. Ryrie, Moody Publishers, Chicago, Illinois, ISBN 0-8024-8920-6
3. Biblegateway.com

Overcoming Obstacles: God’s Plan for Me

I remember when I was working in a job that didn’t pay much and really had no future, but it helped keep food on my family’s table. There were a mixture of people I worked alongside from various backgrounds; I liked them all. One lady, who was much older than me, arrived to work each day with her bible in hand. She was a person who often talked about Jesus to her co-workers; some of whom would simply laugh and make light of her. Whenever she spoke to me I listened intently to her words, it was a time of new beginnings for me, in so many new areas of my life. I was a Christian, husband and father. Looking back at that time, I now realize how much I really didn’t know about the Lord, but what little I knew, I trusted and believed God. I remember reading about Joseph and how despite some really terrible things that occurred in his life, God still blessed and prospered him. I saw Joseph as a man who recognized opportunity. I identified with that aspect of his life; I looked for God to give me opportunity.

So here I was working in a dead-end job, but I believed that I was there only temporarily; that just as he had done for Joseph, God would open the door of opportunity for me. The time came when my manager was promoted to another area of the organization, the Software Programming Department. I remember wishing him well and asking him to remember me if an opportunity for a junior programmer opened. He said he would. I did this because I read how Joseph asked Pharaoh’s cupbearer to:

“...keep me in mind when it goes well with you, and please do me a kindness by mentioning me to Pharaoh, and get me out of this house.”¹

Like Joseph, I expected God to open for me a door of opportunity by using someone else as my facilitator. I shared this belief with that Christian woman on my job, expecting her to stand in agreement with me. Instead, she informed me that what I said was, “Impossible.” She said that, “Nothing like this had ever happened in all the years she worked in this place.” As I listened to her share these words confirmed in her by many years of experience, I’d come to a crossroad in my life. I could believe her and give up my vision of something better, or I could continue to believe that God would open the door of my opportunity. I chose to believe and trust what God had revealed to me in the life of Joseph. I remember thinking that,

“This woman doesn’t know me, why should I allow her to define my life’s future?”

Sometime later, a position did open up in the Software Programming Department, my former manager (Titus), remembered me and recommended me for the position. I was called in for an interview, and I grabbed that opportunity with every fiber within me; believing that the position was already mine.

Looking back at that time in my life, I appreciate now (much more than I did back then) that God creates opportunities for His children.

Back then, I blindly looked at scripture and appropriated it to my own life. I believed God could and would do anything for me. I looked at every obstacle as an opportunity for God to establish victory in my life. I read something recently which talked about the American culture and how we’re so focused on winning. Vince Lombardi, one of the coaching pillars of professional football once said,

“Winning isn’t everything, it’s the ONLY thing.”²

This mentality seems to permeate our culture and society in a way that dictates that everyone and everything that stands in our way must be defeated and vanquished. A sort of philosophy that insists, I must have victory, it’s my God given right as an American!

In examining how I overcome obstacles, it is imperative that I understand to some degree, God’s plan for me. I say this because I have come to accept the sovereignty of God. I accept it because I have come to realize that God does as He chooses and not at my bidding. Just as God provided Joseph with a door of opportunity to be released from prison, God allowed circumstances to occur in Joseph’s life that caused him to be imprisoned in the first place. This was part of God’s plan for Joseph.

I wonder what Joseph was thinking when his brothers threw him into that pit. Did he see himself in God's plan for Joseph or did he see himself stuck in a pit?

What were his thoughts as his brothers stood around mocking him for being a dreamer and favored son? Did he ask himself, "Why did this happen to me?" or did he remind himself to trust in the Lord my God.

I believe that just as I can overcome an obstacle by faithfully trusting in God, I also believe I can overcome an obstacle by trusting in God to enable me to endure what I face. The outcome is no longer the object to me; it is faithfully trusting in God. God may give me the victory in the heat of battle or God may give me the grace to endure the race; it is His sovereign choice. It is so incredibly amazing to me as I try to comprehend that God exists outside the parameters of time. What occurs today in my life has always been known to God, just as all of my tomorrows are known by Him.

I know now that God has a plan for my life, a purpose for my living. This then gives me awareness and faith that in an infinite realm of possible occurrences, God already knows the outcome; and He is capable of handling any outcome I face. The real question is:

Am I capable of trusting my life in His hands, no matter how His plan for me unfolds?

I’m learning to appreciate this aspect of God even more because:

“…He gives us more grace…”³

“…'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.”⁴

“You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.”⁵

“Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.”⁶

"The LORD of hosts has sworn saying, 'Surely, just as I have intended so it has happened, and just as I have planned so it will stand,' "⁷

My Lord and God,

I marvel with joy at the measure of grace You pour upon our lives. You knew us before the worlds were formed, and to each of us, You establish a purpose and plan for our lives. I want to live in that purpose and walk in Your plan. Your grace is sufficient because it is unmeasurable; my life overflows with Your amazing grace. Often we hear the words, "Impossible" and "That can never happen!" These are mere words, the sum of which can never define or defy You. Whether it is Your plan for me to overcome or to endure, I choose to trust You with my life; totally and completely. I have found freedom in You. You give me such joy and peace, saying, "Thank You" seems so miniscule. You know our hearts, You pierce our thoughts, and You know the gratitude we express to You. Again, I say, "Thank You, my Lord and God." Amen.

Footnotes:

1. Genesis 40:14, NASB
2. Famous quote by, Vince Lombardi, Head Coach, Green Bay Packers, from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
3. James 4:6, NIV
4. 2 Corinthians 12:9, NIV
5. 1 John 4:4, NIV
6. Proverbs 3:5-6, NIV
7. Isaiah 14:24, NASB

References:

1. The NIV Study Bible, Edited by Kenneth Barker, Donald Burdick, John Stek, Walter Wessel and Ronald Youngblood, Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49530, USA
2. The Ryrie Study Bible (New American Standard Version), Edited by Charles C. Ryrie, Moody Publishers, Chicago, Illinois, ISBN 0-8024-8920-6
3. Biblegateway.com