S10E13 - Clarity Within The Chaos

To our Fourthstream Friends!

It seems timely to dive once again into the Turbulence and Imperfection which appear to be chasing the human family. You can find our book on this subject under Fourthstream.com/Learning/Books.

Clarity from Chaos

Several weeks ago we were rear-ended by a semi on I-80 traveling to share Jesus things at an awesome conference in Cedar Rapids, where we were to speak in the hearing of many serious-minded young men and women. In one moment our entire world turned over. Focus and clarity of purpose were consumed by chaos. Yet our lives appeared to have been spared by the careful, surgical, hand of God. At one point our doctor remarked “did the trucker even slow down at all?” Our car was totaled, all three of us were beaten up, and each with no apparent broken bones or major lacerations (we were told this in the ER in Grinnell). Lots of pain.

In those cold minutes waiting for the ambulances to arrive (30 minutes?) we were communicating our gratefulness and concerns to each other. My son stepped up, my wife held to faith, and I moaned. It was so surreal I had difficulty processing - I really had never experienced such force trauma in all my life experiences. Burney found my heavy coat and put it over me as window and windshield glass fell everywhere. Then we needed to wait. Air bags spent and flapping in the winter wind.

Here is the part I wanted to share with you.

I have never had a near death experience, but as I sat there everything became very white. As I remarked about this (in my blurry, painful, frosty mind fog) I looked over at my son John and told him that his jeans had snow all over them - that they were shining. He and Burney were quiet. Then from the back seat “are you dying?” I responded with the words “I am not sure.” And then it hit my heart - it did not matter. My soul was settled. I was ready to take the final steps of this life and move on. Her next words “I love you” were perhaps the last thing I would hear on this earth.

Life is so complicated: birth, growing up, living it all out, and preparing for a final exit. I wanted to let you know that above the pain and fear I felt peace. Jesus is not only the King of the earth, He is MY King. And now I have been given more days to attempt to honor Him from my heart and with the works of my hands. Faith often unfolds in the midst of trouble, right?

So it looks like yet another faith pivot in my life. Deep inside I am both grateful to be alive and longing to move forward. Thanks for being our friends - praying for us - and joining us in the path of Jesus faithfulness.  We will see what this next phase entails!

Here is the idea.

“We live within a great paradox. While we work hard to control the circumstances and issues of our lives there are many things which are dictated by realities. These things are not insignificant in their power to impact our peace of mind and our contentment - about where we have come, who we are, and where we feel we are headed.

More often than not life has delivered us some kind of turbulence – even chaos. Imperfection resides everywhere, and pain and uncertainty surrounds us in the form of challenges and disappointments – even within our most cherished hopes and dreams. This unpredictable mix reaches out to cover the end of our journeys as well: what exactly does happen when I die?

It is easy to get stuck on the questions "why me?" or "what did I do wrong?" The God Story reality is that turbulence and imperfection are everywhere. We have no good choice but to look Up. 

Worth reasoning through in a very personal way,
Dave and Burnadette and John