Yesterday my son was born. (and I am definitely one of those proud dads thats always talking about my son and probably will be talking about it him for more than a little while) During the birth the umbilical cord wrapped around his neck and the hospital staff oh so calmly cut the chord, pumped some air into his lungs and he was perfectly fine. Just to be sure, they took little Aodhan (pronounced Aiden) to the neonatal intensive care unit (nicu) to make sure everything was ok. Monday morning I was waiting for this boy at 1:34am and having finally seen him there I was at 9pm the same day waiting for him again.
Now I knew he was fine. I went and saw him in the nicu and saw how well he was doing got reassured by three doctors (including the midwife who delivered) four nurses and a partridge in a pear tree. But still I stood in the recovery room waiting for him with a kind of desperation I have not known before.
Desperation as applied to waiting is not something I have ever understood until now.
Ten virgins waiting for the bridgegroom in the night made no sense to me before this week. I’m not sure I’ll ever fully understand it to be honest. But I do understand the difference between the five wise brides and the five foolish ones. I understand the servant who waits by the door for the master to return. I understand why Jesus says “no one mourns while the bridgegroom is among you.”
And I understand the father waiting for the son who left to come home. Today I understand what it means to wait in desperation.
And yes, Aodhan is perfectly fine and healthy.
In Luke 14:25-35 Christ talks about being a disciple. Now it’s amazing to me that I had heard most of these verses in some form or another, but I had never put them all together. It seems like people will either talking about leaving your mother and father behind to take up the cross daily, or we talk about “what use is salt if it has lost its flavor?” But right in the middle of those verses Jesus asks the question through parables, “Do you have what it takes to be a disciple? Have you examined yourself and answered? Are you ready to take up your cross and follow or aren’t you? Where do you stand? Where are you?” Read more…
The Following is reposted with permission from the author. Chris Branscomb is the author of The Prayer Experiment and is far more dedicated and knowledgeable on the topic of prayer than I am.
With graduation in the air, the end of week six seems a good place to stop and revisit what I’ve learned so far.
Read more…
The Following is a guest post from Kevin Weatherby who runs Campfire Cowboy Ministries. This is a repost and was originally titled Life Lessons from Ropin’ the Chute. For a full bio click HERE
The young cowboy finally had his chance at draggin’ calves to the brandin’ fire. For most of his life, he had been the one doin’ all the flankin’ and the brandin’. Doin’ the draggin’ was usually reserved for the old timers who had already spent their time in the trenches of the brandin’ pen.
Read more…
So we’re all told to wait upon the LORD right? It seems like every other passage in the bible is very good about counseling patience and waiting to move until God tells you to. Otherwise you might hear that we’re supposed to wait until we see God moving, and THEN we get to do something. And that’s true I suppose, we really DON’T want to do anything outside of our LORD or we might find ourselves in over our heads and just making a complete mess of things. But what if we misunderstand what we’re supposed to be doing? But let’s face it, waiting like that stinks. Read more…
