Doors Closed, Doors Open by Sharon Espeseth

If we plan to take seriously God's great commission to go and make disciples of all nations, he isn't asking us to tiptoe. To get the whole message on how bravely he wants us to act, read the 10th Chapter of Matthew. As well as healing the sick, raising the dead, cleansing leprosy, and driving out demons, the disciples were asked to preach that the kingdom of heaven is near.

Today, Jesus asks us to preach this same message. He told his disciples, and he still tells us today, not to mince words and not to worry about what we will say. Jesus still reminds us that it will not be us speaking, but the Spirit of our Father speaking through us. In this same talk with his apostles, Jesus reminds us, "Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword."

Gratitude for my family

Jesus knew that once the apple had been eaten in the Garden of Eden, the world had changed forever. God knows that storms will come, trees will fall, and branches will be broken. When faced with a mess like that, our first inclination would be, at least, to clean up the front yard. Unfortunately, when we're dealing with people, illness, misfortune and sin, the clean up isn't that easy. We also need to do our part to bring the kingdom of God to more than our own little circle of family and friends.

Since we all live outside the security and peace of Eden, misfortune, and illness do surround us. We cannot outrun or hide from the ill effects of evil. The closer it comes, the more we want to hide either the facts or ourselves in the proverbial closet.

Is there any social network in real or virtual life that can escape mental illness, divorce, sexual immorality, failing grades, cratered careers, unwed motherhood, abortion, homosexuality, imprisonment, any kind of abuse, suicide, cancer, addictions. . . ?" Well, you get the idea. If we have none of this list to deal with, we are either extremely blessed or we are avoiding the truth. When circumstances deemed to be beneath our family dignity occur, what do we do? Turn a blind eye? Turn off our computers? Rip pages out of our journals?

I don't think so. These matters are part of life and God intends us to grapple with and grow from the nitty-gritty of daily living. He has also promised to be with us through our trials and temptations. Today the closets are squeaking open and formerly taboo topics start tumbling out. We do have the responsibility to decide if and how such matters are to be handled. Some of these subjects are, as young people say, TMI (Too Much Information), especially for Facebook, coffee chats, dinner or idle gossip. Still these issues may need a platform.

For instance, we would like our families and ourselves to be spared from mental health concerns. Statistics for 2011 suggest otherwise. "In any given year, one in five Canadians experiences a mental health or addiction problem." (CAMH: Centre for Addiction and Mental Health website)

Nature and exercise--good for all!

For me, the above revelation becomes more than a statistic. In the mid-nineties and again about ten years later, I was diagnosed with clinical depression. During each episode of this illness, my doctor and counselling psychologist reminded me that stress over a long time puts the chemicals in my brain out of whack. Through both major bouts, I needed to slow down, stop work and take meds. My prescription included rest, prayer, reading appropriate material, exercise, eating well, and relying on faith, family and friends.

To this regimen, I added writing, which included sorting things out, expressing gratitude and praying. I determined to figure out, with God's help and counselling, why I was so driven, why I set unreasonable standards for myself, why I as a Christian with my hope in Christ could become depressed, and what I could do to prevent further burnout and illness. For one thing, I need to practice "self-care" and learn to know my own limitations. I need God's guidance in choosing when to say "Yes" or "No" to requests for my time and resources. I am still a work in progress.

I am concerned when I see other people who take on too much responsibility and and who do too much. I do feel God telling me to be more open about my battle with depression so that I may promote prevention, healing and hope to others. It is time for me, with God's help, to push this closet door further ajar.

Which doors, Lord, would you have me open?
Prayer: Lord, help us to submit to your will when deciding how to use each day. Bless our efforts. Amen

"Endurance"

As many of you know I have been sick for a few weeks with a mysterious illness. I was laying in bed Monday night and the Lord reminded me of this story I had read a few years ago. It gave me great comfort and I was able to sleep. The next day, Tuesday, I shared it with my friend and remarked to her how I ‘just needed to trust the Lord’. It’s so easy to say but I didn’t realize how difficult it would become. The next day, Wednesday, my left hand and leg went numb. This true story has taken on greater meaning since then. I know somebody was praying for me at the moment God reminded me of this remarkable story. Thank you for your prayers.

His ship was called “Endurance” for good reason. Sir Ernest Shackleton never gave up. He brought home his crew of 28 men despite mountainous challenges. He had been commissioned to cross Antarctica with the British Flag in 1914. His ship was trapped and its rudder sliced open by pack ice within a few months. The crew survived living on ice floes for six months until one of the floes split, nearly drowning a crew member. They headed in life boats to Elephant Island with its abusive wind and high tides. Soon all the seals migrated north for winter and there was nothing left to eat. Shackleton knew he must go at once for help, though it meant crossing the most treacherous sea in the world, in the dead of winter. He took five shipmates and challenged 800 miles of open waters in a 22 foot lifeboat. Sixty foot waves drenched their cramped living quarters every three or four minutes. Salt infiltrated their fresh water.

They were aiming for South Georgia Island where there was a whaling station. They made it there in sixteen days but because of a hurricane they were unable to land on the side of civilization. They would be forced to march across the island. The island had never been crossed. The furthest anybody had ever made it was one mile inland. But Shackleton was determined to save his men. He took two of his crew members and set out on foot.

As they hiked in the moonlight they came to a string of five ice-covered mountains. On the other side lay the whaling station. The only way to find help was to cross these mountains. They ascended the first pass which looked “deceptively easy”. At the top they stared down into a sheer drop with a crevasse-littered valley. They tried the next two passes with the same discouraging results. Finally, as the sun was going down they crested the fourth and final pass. Straddling the steep point at the mountain top they again looked down into a dark icy canyon.

Shackleton drew aside to think. To retreat over the crevasses they had already climbed would mean certain death in these shadows. To camp overnight on the mountain would mean death by freezing. Their only choice was to slide down the steep shadowed face.

If they were killed, at least they would have done everything to save their crew, he reasoned. “We’ll slide,” he said. His shipmates were astounded at his decision. In these shadows they could hit a rock or slip into a crevasse; however they realized they had little choice.

The three of them sat down and linked together as one man. Worsley, the book’s author, remembers it like this:

“Shackleton kicked off. We seemed to shoot into space. For a moment my hair fairly stood on end. Then quite suddenly I felt a glow, and knew that I was grinning! I was actually enjoying it. It was most exhilarating. We were shooting down the side of an almost precipitous mountain at nearly a mile a minute. I yelled with excitement, and found that Shackleton and Crean were yelling too. It seemed ridiculously safe.”


At the bottom they all stood up, brushed off their clothes, and stared at the three-thousand foot cliff they had slid down. They couldn’t speak a word. The only sound was their gasp and the slap of their reindeer gloves as they solemnly shook hands, but they all asked themselves the same question: Where was the fourth man? They had sensed him on the hair-raising slide. Later they would share with each other that they had all felt the presence of another man through the entire crossing of South Georgia, as testified to in Worsley’s journal.

I am at the top of a steep mountain with a choice to make. I have tried the other passes and they failed me. Those passes are fear, control, and man. Fear is certainly not curing me of this illness, and neither is my strong desire to control it. I cannot control this sickness. It has set its own course. Man and medicine, though inspired by the Creator, will ultimately disappoint. I only have one choice as I look down into a dark valley. Trust.

I need to let go of my control and trust God to guide me down. I don’t know what dangers or despairs I will encounter along the way. I don’t know if I will make it safely to the bottom but I do know, I MUST believe, that He is with me. I must hang on to him and ride.

We all have treasures that we need to let go, whether it is our health, our children, our possessions, or our future. Does anyone care to join me in the ride? When we get where we’re going we’ll shake hands all around and marvel at what God has brought us through.

He alone is my rock and my salvation and I shall not be greatly moved (from Psalm 62).

Pam
(Quotes from Endurance (W.W. Norton & Co. New York: 1931)