The Wittz End: Hallelujah Anyhow

Each week in school there is a dictation passage for my girls to study everyday, to notice the punctuation placement, the spelling for each word and when and where to capitalize. Then at the end of the week I read it out loud and these students do their best to write everything correctly. There is a recent one that really stood out to me.

Matthew Henry, meditating on the theft of his wallet:

"Let me be thankful, first, because he never robbed me before; second, because although he took my purse, he did not take my life; third, because although he took all I possessed, it was not much; and fourth, because it was I who was robbed, not I who robbed."

Henry is able to explain the facts of an unfortunate incident and still point out all the ways in which he can be thankful. He does not avoid or pretend that there was no problem. In life there is both good and bad. We are in charge of our response to those good and bad incidents. There are many televangelists that preach an unbiblical message that once you get saved your poverty, troubles, sickness, will come to an end. What a bunch of garbage that is! We will definitely have troubles here on earth, BUT He has overcome! I think of Job, after so many disasters fell on him, his wife told him to curse God and die. His reply, "You are talking like a foolish woman. Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?"

These last few weeks have been busy with activities, traveling, and goodbyes. There were no disasters or calamities, but instead, a few bumps in the road. I want to try to present the facts of two separate occasions where I can see both the trial and a heart full of thankfulness. My disclaimer is it will be far from the eloquence of Matthew Henry.

The beginning of December, the fourth to be exact, was a day to celebrate my firstborn, Righteous, turning 12. That same day Charis chickenpox was in full motion filled with pain in the back of her neck due to her glands being swollen. On top of that she was vomiting a lot. I am thankful for Jason being the one to take her to the hospital (I really do a horrible job with anything medically related). I am also thankful for injections that instantaneously stop pain and vomiting. The following day Jason stayed home to be checking in on Charis. He heard a popping sound coming from the bathroom and quickly went in to see the water heater had sparked and fire was making its way up the wire. His fast reflexes had him run to turn the house breaker off and then grab a wet towel to extinguish the fire . Had the fire made its way to the wooden ceiling our entire house would have gone down in flames. The Lord orchastrasted Jason to be home when this happened, being able to know what to do, thus God's hand of protection was upon our home.

We traveled to Nairobi on the 9th to say farewell to the Bethany interns who finished their 16 months in Kenya. We took their team around the game park and it was my very first time to be a driver! Due to much rain the night before I got our vehicle stuck there for nearly 4 hours. Although we missed lunch, we had plenty of drinking water. We could no longer go about our plan seeing all the animals but we had eachother to add another memory to experience together. Earlier that day we had seen a lioness with her recent kill. Thankfully I never saw her or any other animal when I had to use the bathroom in the wild. My devotional has this quote, " You are not stuck! Your circumstances will feel a whole lot better if you get in your head you are only passing through the moment. This is NOT where it will end!" Amen to that, a tractor finally came and pulled us out, we were just passing through a moment.

Today Samara woke up with a high fever and Chicken Pox. Which in itself is no big deal, this means we will have a restful day in my bed or on the couch. I do not know what tomorrow will bring but I have hope and the assurance that one day I will be with Christ forever and this will all just be a vapor. Until that day my prayer is, " Let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for He who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds." Hebrews 10:22-24 So let us all persevere with whatever life brings, and look with expectancy that God will help us through!