"WORD Birds!"

If you’ve been reading from this blog for any length of time, you’ll probably laugh when I say that I have a passion for the Word of God.  I say that because I talk about it all the time!  I had a passion for His Words as they are recorded in the Bible even before I had any idea what they meant!  When Piper gave me that first paperback New Testament Good News translation soon after we began dating, I was mesmerized by it!  I recall walking down the hallway at my parents’ home when I got home from school that day, all excited about the adventure that awaited me between the pages of that special book!  

Prior to that time, I can remember piously picking up the Catholic Douay Bible that my folks had as ornamentation on one of the end tables in the living room and looking through it.  And each time I did it, I came away more confused than when I’d opened it!  But I seemed to know deep down inside, that there was something special about it!

And thank the Lord that I had the most fortunate opportunity to fall in love with a gal that not only had that same passion… but more importantly… had a good understanding of what it said… and in fact, lived her life by it!

I’ve had a few people asked me since Piper’s move to heaven, if my faith was shaken by what happened to her.  And each and every time my unequivocal answer is a resounding “NO!”  To be honest, I am always surprised by that question.  My first thought is always the same… “WHY?”  Meaning both WHY would it be shaken and/or WHY would you ask me such a (silly) question?  I don’t mean to be rude, but if anything, my faith has gotten progressively stronger since I first got that paperback New Testament and began to learn about the promises of God!

Lately I have been studying the 23^rd Psalm.  Today I was enamored by verse four as explained through my new Passion Translation Bible.  Here the Psalmist seemingly takes the words right out of my mouth when he wrote, “Lord, even when your path takes me through the valley of deepest darkness, fear will never conquer me, for you already have! You remain close to me and lead me through it all the way. Your authority is my strength and my peace. The comfort of your love takes away my fear. I’ll never be lonely, for you are near.” 

Many truths stand out to me in that scripture promise.  God had (& still is) taking me through my deepest valley of darkness.  I didn’t get stuck anywhere along the way, and I am not stuck now!  Fear sure tried it’s best to rear its ugly head through the negative comments and actions of people I love, through the drastic deformative changes in Piper’s beautiful features, all the emergency situations we were faced with along the way, and worst of all for me, seeing the torment she would go through in the midst of the numerous seizures she had in front of me and not be able to do anything but calmly keep her safe and repeatedly assure her that she was gonna be okay!

And through it all, we NEVER gave up and NEVER gave fear an inch!  Was I tempted?  You bet I was, but I refused to give ownership to any of those thoughts.  Way back in 2008, the Lord had begun to deal with me concerning Ephesians 3:19 where Paul prays that we would come to the place of having an ever-increasing, intimate knowing of Christ love for us, and that revelation kept me going because I knew that His love for Piper and I also included the keeping of the promises in His Word.  God has remained close to me the whole journey, all the way… & He is still with me today!

We had learned early on in our relationship that His authority in and through His Word would always be our strength and peace.  So that understanding was already in place when we began to get the results of her tests.  And through it all, the comfort of HIS LOVE always dealt with the encroachments of fear. 

And now… well… I’m working on the last part of that verse.  He promises me that I’ll never be lonely… and to be honest… that’s been a hard one to work through!  But I am pressing onward, trusting Him more than ever before and thanking Him each day as time seems to help to take away the pain of the loss of the most important person in my life.

People have also asked how I feel because she wasn’t healed as we had set our faith… and again, without a second thought… I ALWAYS answer the same!  I can’t help but to break out into a great big smile and correct them saying… “Oh!  But YES, SHE WAS!”  Ephesians 1:4 tells us that, “Before the creation of the world, he chose us through Christ to be holy and perfect in his presence.” (God’s Word ©)  And well… She is in HIS presence NOW and according that WORD, she is Holy, Happy and Perfect there!”  (I add the “HAPPY” as Psalm 16:11 states that “complete JOY is in HIS presence.” as well)

So, what more can I say?  Piper and I have always been what I came to coin as “WORD Birds!”  We chose to live our lives by the Word of God and NOT by what we saw and heard that was contrary to it.  I wouldn’t ever want to change that!  I saw what happened to good people who chose to depend more on what they SAW than on what the WORD of GOD said about our situation and I feel sorry for them.  I hurt for them.  But there isn’t anything I can do, besides to pray for them.  They have to make their own decisions… and then live by them.

How have you chosen to live your life?  In WHOM or in WHAT do you base your trust?