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American Christians should think twice before we ever use the word persecution when we describe our trials. Please hear me out…I know that many of the things we endure are difficult. Betrayal, slander, loneliness, hurt, illness, divorce, abandonment, and separation are painful. But persecution? I don’t know if the average American Christian really knows what that word means. Dictionary.net defines persecution as “the act or practice of persecuting; especially, the infliction of loss, pain, or death for adherence to a particular creed or mode of worship.”

I have been so moved by the story of Adbul Rahman. He is my brother in Christ in Afghanistan. Abdul  has earned the right to use the word persecution. He has stood courageously in the face of threats, ridicule, and even the prospect of death. I am not worthy to lace his sandals. When Rahman had the oportunity to “compromise” to save his life he refused. Authorities offered him the defense of mental incompetance to avoid the punishment. He announced that he was completely sane.

If he had been sentenced, Rahman would have been the first person punished for leaving Islam since the Taliban was ousted by American-led forces in late 2001.

An Afghan Christian in the U.S. who has regular contact with Christians in his home country through his ministry, posted a video clip of Rahman on his website. Rahman says in the clip, according to Andaryas: “The punishment by hanging? I will accept it gladly, but I am not an infidel. I am not a traitor. I am a follower of Jesus.”

 I am humbled. I am ashamed that I have been intimidated that someone might make fun of me if I make my faith known. Joni and I have a running gag that whenever I hear myself starting down Woe is Me Lane I stop and say this to her.

“Nobody suffers as much as I do, do they?”
“No,” she laughs. “Nobody.”

It is my way of self-depracating acknowledgement that my trials are small and my God is big. I just need to remember that. Today the trial is a little bigger as we sit at the hospital awaiting Joni’s surgery for breast cancer. And we know that the same God who gave Abdul the courage to look death in the eye and never flinch is the same God who comforts us in Room number 8. To paraphrase a promise from God’s Word…

“Greater is He who is in Joni and than the cancer that is in her body.”

We do not doubt that for one second. Thank you to my brother Abdul who has blessed and encouraged a member of his new family half a world away. Our God is an awesome God.

P.S. Surgery went perfectly. We will find out by Friday if the cancer is contained. Chemotherapy starts in 3 to 4 weeks. We are trusting, completely, in Him.

So many friends have expressed caring, love, and prayers since the word went out about Joni’s cancer. We are touched and blessed by your prayers and encouragement. James told us to “consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”

That is a pretty tall order isn’t it? But as I look over my life I realize that every time of real growth was watered by adversity. Job endured a more severe test that most of us can even fathom. Not once through all of his overwhelming trials did Job sin. He said nothing against God. At one point Job’s wife said to him, “Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die!” But he said to her, “You speak as one of the foolish women speaks. Shall we indeed accept good from God and not accept adversity? In all this Job did not sin with his lips.” I am convinced that Job had decided in advance that his God was trustworthy so he was able to choose to trust Him. He most assuredly did not operate from feelings. He chose to honor God and accept the adversity. We choose to do the same.

I have decided two things. First of all, that I am grateful that my bride is not like Job’s bride. And second, that Joni and I will make this song from Casting Crowns our theme song for the next few months.

I’ll praise You in this storm
And I will lift my hands
For You are who You are
No matter where I am
Every tear I’ve cried
You hold in Your hand
You never left my side
And though my heart is torn
I will praise You in this storm

Thank you for your prayers and support. We are humbled by your response.

Writing this humble blog has been, to say the least, an interesting experience. I am still getting used to having people call you less than kind things. One person who appears not to be a fan of mine wrote that I am a vulture and declared “what a bunch of hypocrites you people are.” You people?  This grace filled response was in reply to my suggestion that a Christian celebrity should be accountable for their actions. But the more common and much happier side of the blog experience is meeting new friends through this unique medium. I have developed a great friendship through one of those random contacts.

My new friend Randy wrote to me about a tradition he and his wife have with their sons. Each young man has a right of passage celebration when they reach the age of thirteen. Randy explained the format in his message.
 
“When my eldest, David, turned 13, Carol and I were moved to have a group of men over for his favorite dinner and share “Words of Wisdom” with him.  All we asked was that they share something with him that they wished someone had shared with them when they were 13.  It was an amazing night, which we have never and never will forget.  A dozen or so godly men investing in a great kid. We ate David’s favorite  meal (Swiss steak, mashed potatoes, green beans, Snickers cake…), then spent time sharing around the table, one at a time. 
Now comes time for our middle son, Joel.  Tomorrow is the night.”

What a wonderful idea! How I wish I had known about this when my sons began that transition from boy to man. To have men of wisdom and character share their thoughts and experience with each son would be priceless. Randy asked me if I would share something with Joel. It was an interesting challenge to write about what I wish I had known at thirteen because that age sucked for me. But God had used what I perceived to be an awful period to help make me who I am today. That is what I shared via letter with Joel.

Hi Joel,

I have not had the privilege of meeting you but I look forward to correcting that soon. However, I have had three sons who have made the passage you are making from young man into manhood. Your Dad asked me to share a few thoughts about this season of your life. I went back to my experience at age thirteen. To be honest, it was not the best time of my life. To be really honest, it was awful. I was overweight, not popular, and uncomfortable around girls.

Now I realize that what I once considered some of the worst moments of my life I am grateful for experiencing. In many of those spiritual valleys you could not have begun to convince me that God was molding me or that those experiences could ever be of value. I knew the scripture just as you likely do…that in all things God works for the good of those who love him. I now realize that mere knowledge of that promise is not enough. It comes down to our foundational belief of who God is. Do we believe His Word? I mean really believe His Word? That He will actually cause even the worst event to something work for ours or someone else’s good? That requires faith in a God that is trustworthy.

Do we know His attributes? Do we believe (really believe) His promises? If we do, then we must accept the troubles and “we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good”. Romans 8:28 (MsgB) 

I have developed a heart of compassion for those of you who are wounded. Why? God gave me the privilege of being wounded early in my life. That sounds crazy as I read back over that last sentence. It is not a sentence that I would have written twenty, ten or perhaps even five years ago. But I can see that my struggles as an overweight, geeky and generally outcast adolescent molded my heart to empathize with those who are hurt and ostracized by their peers.

Had I been the coolest guy or the best athlete or the most handsome I most likely would not have developed a sensitive spirit to others. So God gave me the opportunity on all of those fronts to develop sensitivity.  I did not enjoy that period of my life. I would have given anything at that time to be one of the popular kids. I would have told you that I would gladly trade nearly anything on the spot to be the starting quarterback or the big man on campus. I was desperate to be part of the cool group. With the benefit of hindsight I can promise you that I am grateful for every refining difficulty and problem.  Such a dramatic change in attitude is a matter of time, growth in my relationship with Jesus and my trust in the truth of His promises. As G.K.Chesterton wryly noted, “Do not free a camel of the burden of his hump; you may be freeing him from being a camel.” Had I been freed the burden of my “hump” (that tough teenage passage), I would not be who I am today.

So I hope your experience right now is better than mine. But if it is not or if it changes in the future, always remember that God is in control, He loves you even more than your wonderful earthly father, and He will work it for good even if you cannot see it at the time.

Congratulations. Happy Birthday!

Just a couple of days later I received an actual letter of thanks from Joel. I didn’t know that any teenagers knew about stamps and envelopes. His thoughts were mature and articulate. Joel finished with this phrase, “thanks a million for helping me as I take a step into manhood!”

You are welcome. And remember to pass that on to other young men some day. This whole experience was a blessing for me. There are a lot of bad kids out there but they are outnumbered by kids like Joel. You just have to look a little harder to find out about them. It is worth the effort.

Most of life’s sentences are blissfully mundane. I can’t find my keys. Take out the garbage. Please feed the dog. I can’t find my keys. ADD readers will relate to that string of comments. But sometimes a single sentence will change your life. My bride of nearly thirty years dropped one of those sentences on me earlier this week.

“My spot was cancerous.”

After an optimistic initial briefing from the surgeon days earlier we were not prepared for the harsh reality of the pathology report. The  breast cancer is still small but aggressive. The prognosis still optimistic but the journey will be hard. Yesterday I quoted that noted scholar and philosopher Mike Tyson who said, “Everyone has a game plan until they get hit in the mouth.”  That was how I felt after talking and crying with my wife. We are looking at a year of treatment and trials. But God is good and His grace is truly sufficient. How can you explain how forty eight hours later we can have such confidence and peace?

Many of you read these ramblings at Crosswalk and I have become a regular peruser of that site. Just last week pastor and author John Piper wrote an amazing article at Crosswalk called “Don’t Waste Your Cancer.” Piper wrote the article on the eve of his own prostate surgery so he has a little “street cred” on the topic. I was blown away at his godly response to this fearsome foe. I never dreamed that I would be sharing that article with my wife just days later.  Joni and I have adopted John’s spiritual battle plan right alongside our doctor’s medical strategy as we proceed to fight this giant. Here is just some of John Piper’s wisdom from that article.

You will waste your cancer if you do not believe it is designed for you by God.
 
It will not do to say that God only uses our cancer but does not design it. What God permits, he permits for a reason. And that reason is his design. If God foresees molecular developments becoming cancer, he can stop it or not. If he does not, he has a purpose. Since he is infinitely wise, it is right to call this purpose a design. Satan is real and causes many pleasures and pains. But he is not ultimate. So when he strikes Job with boils (Job 2:7), Job attributes it ultimately to God (2:10) and the inspired writer agrees: “They . . . comforted him for all the evil that the LORD had brought upon him” (Job 42:11). If you don’t believe your cancer is designed for you by God, you will waste it.

You will waste your cancer if you believe it is a curse and not a gift.

“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1). “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us” (Galatians 3:13). “There is no enchantment against Jacob, no divination against Israel” (Numbers 23:23). “The LORD God is a sun and shield; the LORD bestows favor and honor. No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly” (Psalm 84:11).

You will waste your cancer if you seek comfort from your odds rather than from God.

The design of God in your cancer is not to train you in the rationalistic, human calculation of odds. The world gets comfort from their odds. Not Christians. Some count their chariots (percentages of survival) and some count their horses (side effects of treatment), but we trust in the name of the LORD our God (Psalm 20:7). God’s design is clear from 2 Corinthians 1:9, “We felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead.” The aim of God in your cancer (among a thousand other good things) is to knock props out from under our hearts so that we rely utterly on him.

You will waste your cancer if you let it drive you into solitude instead of deepen your relationships with manifest affection.

When Epaphroditus brought the gifts to Paul sent by the Philippian church he became ill and almost died. Paul tells the Philippians, “He has been longing for you all and has been distressed because you heard that he was ill” (Philippians 2:26-27). What an amazing response! It does not say they were distressed that he was ill, but that he was distressed because they heard he was ill. That is the kind of heart God is aiming to create with cancer: a deeply affectionate, caring heart for people. Don’t waste your cancer by retreating into yourself.

You will waste your cancer if you fail to use it as a means of witness to the truth and glory of Christ.

Christians are never anywhere by divine accident. There are reasons for why we wind up where we do. Consider what Jesus said about painful, unplanned circumstances: “They will lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors for my name’s sake. This will be your opportunity to bear witness” (Luke 21:12 -13). So it is with cancer. This will be an opportunity to bear witness. Christ is infinitely worthy. Here is a golden opportunity to show that he is worth more than life. Don’t waste it.

Joni and I do not intend to waste this experience. When we prayed about her upcoming surgery my amazing wife dropped another sentence on me that was a life changer.

“Dear God…I am not and I will not question you.”

How can you not want to go into battle with a woman like that? Yesterday I told her that I wished I was going through this and not her. She said that she was glad it was her and not me. The miracle of the two becoming one is that we both meant what we said. Just about thirty years ago I proclaimed another life changing statement without really realizing the magnitude of the vow that I was making.

I take you Joni to be my wife, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better or for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health…

So it is my turn to step up to the plate and back up that vow. What a privilege to be there for her as she would be there for me. We value your prayers. For anyone who might stumble on this blog I would suggest one more life changing statement. This is a statement that I have experienced and can highly recommend for both the mountains and valleys of this journey.

Jesus…I want to know you personally.

One of my many failed careers was as a disk jockey at 1350 Radio…WCHI in Chillicothe, Ohio (Motto: How did we get these call letters instead of a Chicago station?). I remember having to the run the weekly test of the Emergency Broadcast System. Remember that annoying little jewel?

Obnoxious sound effect.
Obnoxious sound effect.

“This is a test of the Emergency Broadcast System. The broadcasters of your area in voluntary cooperation with the Federal, State and local authorities have developed this system to keep you informed in the event of an emergency. If this had been an actual emergency, the Attention Signal you just heard would have been followed by official information, news or instructions. This concludes this test of the Emergency Broadcast System.”

I was always tempted to say that “had this been an actual emergency I will be in my car headed south” but I restrained myself. I had already gotten a little slap from the FCC when I took a toss for the mandatory station ID and dropped this clever little quip.

“It’s the white building on Eastern Avenue with the huge tower behind it…now back to you.”  I found out at a very young age that government agencies are humorless.

I never took the Emergency Broadcast System seriously because, like most human beings, I never thought anything would happen. It is much the same with the Emergency Faith Test System. This week I have had a test of the EFTS. My family received the kind of news this week that causes you to activate the Emergency Faith Test System. I have written often that we misrepresent the journey if we intimate that everything will be smooth sailing when you follow Jesus. The following is from “Bring’em Back Alive”. 

Jesus is not a money back guarantee for perfect health, prosperity and non-stop giddiness.  There are no guarantees of smooth sailing when we commit in faith to follow Jesus. Correction. Jesus did offer a guarantee concerning trouble in our lives. He guaranteed we would experience it. “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” Matt 6:34 In talking about the immature believer Jesus said, “But since he has no root, he lasts only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, he quickly falls away.” Matt 13:21 Or as the always eloquent Mike Tyson said, “Everyone has a game plan until they get hit in the mouth.”  And that is where our spiritual “sparring” partners often let us down. We don’t prepare new Christians for the inevitable spiritual punch in the mouth that is coming from life, from the enemy and, sadly, sometimes from each other.

 I also think the church can mislead recent and seeking believers when we inform them to just “give their troubles to Jesus.” What we neglected to tell them from the eternal life fine print is that Jesus might have given or allowed those very troubles to shape their character and need for Him.  We conveniently forget to mention that from those troubles God will develop maturity and depth to our
faith and there is much to be mined from those difficulties. NBA basketball star Alonzo Mourning had a wonderful quote when facing a career ending illness, “Adversity introduces a man to himself.” When we suddenly face adversity we discover if our faith stands up the challenge. Does this faith work when the skies turn dark and the seas are rough?
 
Former UCLA football coach Pepper Rogers was a proponent of a type of complicated offense called the wishbone. When the team struggled, the alumni demanded that he change the system. “The wishbone,” Rogers said, “is like Christianity. If you believe in it only till something goes wrong, you don’t believe in it in the first place.”   

In many ways we are like that alumni group when we question the system when trouble comes our way. We have two uncomfortable options to consider when we respond like that. Either we don’t actually believe the promises of Jesus or we don’t know what promises He made to us in the Bible. So what should we communicate about our faith? How about letting our Lord sell the message? He never promised a trouble free romp through the world.

“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” Jn 16:33

 What an incredible promise! The enemy has diverted us to a message that is far less fulfilling. Joni and I have activated the Emergency Faith System. And unlike my cynical response from the old broadcast days, I know this system works. God has proved faithful before and He has not changed.

I have been around Christians who could open a travel agency for guilt trips. That is not my desire with today’s post. But if you opt to take a guilt trip because of these thoughts I should pack my spiritual bags and join you on the journey.

Yesterday dawned with your humble correspondant feeling a bit low in spirits. Work has taken me away from church for a couple of weeks. My schedule has been mentally and physically taxing. I woke up feeling like hammered dog doo (sorry, couldn’t think of the medical term). The woe is me voice was gathering volume as I picked up the Sunday paper. There in the Dallas Morning News was a story that caused me to take a sharp detour off of Pity Parkway. This headline put my little problems into sharp perspective.

Afghan man could be executed for converting to Christianity

Here is the story from the Dallas paper.

An Afghan man who allegedly converted from Islam to Christianity is being prosecuted in a Kabul court and could be sentenced to death, a judge said Sunday. The defendant, Abdul Rahman, was arrested last month after his family went to the police and accused him of becoming a Christian, Judge Ansarullah Mawlavezada told Associated Press in an interview. Such a conversion would violate the country’s Islamic laws. Rahman, who is believed to be 41, was charged with rejecting Islam when his trial started last week, the judge said.

During the hearing, the defendant allegedly confessed that he converted from Islam to Christianity 16 years ago when he was 25 and working as a medical aid worker for Afghan refugees in neighboring Pakistan, Mawlavezada said. Afghanistan’s constitution is based on Shariah law, which states that any Muslim who rejects their religion should be sentenced to death. “We are not against any particular religion in the world. But in Afghanistan, this sort of thing is against the law,” the judge said. “It is an attack on Islam. … The prosecutor is asking for the death penalty.” The prosecutor, Abdul Wasi, said the case was the first of its kind in Afghanistan. He said that he had offered to drop the charges if Rahman changed his religion back to Islam, but the defendant refused.

Those last four words sent me to the  bathroom mirror to look at a man who generally does not have a clue what a bad day looks like.

…but the defendant refused.

Wow. Would I have that kind of courage to stand up for Jesus? I recently wrote an article called Time to Post and Run.  It dealt with the difficult topic of whether we sometimes choose to remain victims when we have been spiritually wounded. I am not making any judgements for you. I just know that the decision of Abdul Rahman humbled me. My brother in Christ made a stand for Christ that may cost him his life. I was worried about a tough schedule and few speed bumps on my journey. Paul realized his weakness was really his strength. That is what I must cling to in my stumbling, bumbling journey.

I will not boast about myself, except about my weaknesses. Even if I should choose to boast, I would not be a fool, because I would be speaking the truth. But I refrain, so no one will think more of me than is warranted by what I do or say. To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, “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.  2 Cor 12  NIV

Pray for our brother Abdul. I suspect that about 99.9 percent of those who read this today can pause and be grateful that we likely won’t ever have to make a decision like Abdul. But if I do have to make such a decision I pray that I will have written the truth of His Word across my heart.

My soul finds rest in God alone; my salvation comes from Him. He alone is my rock and my salvation; He is my fortress, I will never be shaken.    Psalm 62:1-2 NIV

Today is a bit of deja vu for me. I am in the middle of my real job which is television sports directing at a basketball tournament site. I look at the credentials of my fellow bloggers on Crosswalk and I have to chuckle. Perhaps they won’t notice that my bio is filled with items like, “Dave is a member of Sam’s Club.” The deja vu moment came from the realization that it was during this very March madness women’s basketball tournament that I got the inspiration for what would become my extremely modestly selling book, “Bring’em Back Alive“. Here is an excerpt from the introduction.

My spiritual insights generally aren’t revealed during television broadcasts of women’s basketball. I suspect that hardly makes me unique. But inspiration came clearly and forcefully during a telecast of an NCAA Women’s basketball tournament game from Boulder, Colorado.

Let me set the stage for you. I am a television sports director. I call the camera shots that dictate what you see on your screen at home. Yes, I am the faceless guy you yell at to see this shot or that reaction. On this night an undermanned (or should I say underpersoned?) Louisiana State University women’s team was battling Colorado. And battling was the right word since LSU was down to only seven players who were dressed to play in the game. Five key players sat injured on the bench in civilian clothes. That was the background for my spiritual revelation.

I selected some shots of the tired players on the court. “LSU has fought gamely”, the announcers reported. “With only seven players on the active roster.” I took a shot of the five players in street clothes. “But when these five talented contributors are nursed back to health and you add a group of skilled recruits…LSU is going to be a powerful force next year.”  Then it hit me. We don’t follow that simple principle in the church. When we have injured and wounded players it is often too easy to ignore them and simply concentrate on recruiting new ones. I have watched dear friends walk away from my church “team” and I realized that my life and the body life of my church would never be quite the same. We lose the value of experience and depth that healing those wounded Christians would bring. I have wondered if we throw the term “church family” around a bit too loosely because I surely would pursue and attempt to heal a member of my genetic family that wanders away.

Do the math on my basketball example. If LSU returns seven players plus heals the five injured and brings in five recruits they have seventeen to choose from. If they discard the wounded they have only twelve players to enter the battle. How much talent and ability have we removed from the church by not aggressively seeking to find and heal our wounded lambs? And we must not ignore the uncomfortable fact that many injured lambs sit near us every Sunday. They have not wandered off physically but they have left us emotionally and are therefore rendered ineffective for the Kingdom.

That was written about four years ago. The volume of emails and notes that I get tells me we still have an enormous problem with our “injured” saints. I pray that the Holy Spirit will give us the heart to seek them and help restore wounded saints to the team. We need them. The body of Christ needs every single family member to be fully healthy.

Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son  into the world that we might live through him.  This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.  I John 4

Am I suffering from March “madness” to dream and believe this can really happen?