Storm Watch 2010 - day two

OK - this blog is not really going to be about the weather. I'm sorry if that constitutes false advertising or something. But it is going to be about a storm in my life - from a long long time ago.

Jesus said, "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." John 16:33

I can't even claim that I found that in my morning Bible reading for today. Actually I am reading in Genesis, and I hadn't even opened the Word yet when I came across this verse as somebody's status on Facebook! But it challenged me, and comforted me all the same.

I am going to tell a story which might need a disclaimer: it is somewhat gruesome. Not graphic or awful the way today's PG13 movies have gotten, but - well let me just tell it and you decide. Let me know -

Many years ago I had a cyst under my arm. It bugged me, because it was pressing on a muscle and had made a huge purple bruise. Then, of course, it continued to press on that bruise all day and all night. I went to the doctor and he said we should open it and clean it out. Sounds like something you do to a carburetor or even your desktop computer when the fan gets covered with dust, but not part of my arm.

So the next day I showed up at the outpatient surgery clinic. The surgeon poked and prodded, and I thought for a minute he was trying to see if he could just pull the thing off by force - but he needed to be sure that it was in my skin, and not in the muscle below. That was so that he didn't end up hitting a nerve and ending my fabulous piano playing career. I was OK with that - but he was grabbing, tugging and squeezing on a very sore area, and I was about to tell him to just cut my arm off and be done with it - when he was finally satisfied and knew what he needed to do. So he gave the nurse some instructions, and went to scrub up.

This was such minor surgery - but it had my full attention, I can assure you. So after we swabbed the area down, and the nurse laid out the implements and supplies, the doc came back into the room and uttered the most amazing words I have ever heard a doctor say to me:

"We can't numb the area because of..." and then he rattled off some medical stuff which I didn't hear, didn't understand and didn't care about. I was back at the part where he said he couldn't numb the area. He was about to cut into me, but not be able to numb it. Whoa!

"What? Can't you use something topical? Or something.... ?"

"No, sorry." And this is when he said it. Those words I will never forget the rest of my life, if I live to be 55:

"This will hurt."

Holy moly! You know how they always tell you, "this won't hurt a bit," and then it hurts like crazy? Well he had just told me it WILL HURT! Oh man! I began to sweat immediately. OK - fast-forward to the end. Yes, it hurt. Mostly a burning as he cut into the flesh and so on. Enough about that. The point is what he told me. "It will hurt," and it did.

So, when we see Jesus telling us that "in this world you will have trouble," it is like that doc being honest with me and telling me it WILL hurt. I think we can take Jesus at his word every time, so when HE tells us we'll have trouble, bank on it.

But the good news is not that Jesus is honest, or that there will be trouble. The good news is that if we are smart, we will take the warning, and stop looking to the world for our comfort, our peace, our happiness, etc. We will take the warning that this world is set up for us to experience trouble.

But there is better news, because Jesus doesn't leave us there. He says, "But take heart! I have overcome the world."

That's just about the best news I have ever heard. It is no fun to bury a loved one, lose a business, lose a home, lose anything for that matter. It is no fun to put up with the way that people sometimes treat each other, or the various natural disasters which crop up. But Jesus promised us that he has overcome all that - so in the end, we will walk with Him.

I obviously survived my little surgery. In fact it took three more follow up visits which all had some pain as the packing was removed and a new one inserted, but the end result was healing. It worked out just the way the doctor intended. And I am quite sure that we can trust Jesus that our lives will also work out just as He intends.

You know, there is one other thing which comes to mind. Jesus said the exact words I have quoted above, but he also 'said' one other thing - this time without words. By coming to earth do die for us, he indicated that we needed a savior. In effect, he was telling us, "you are lost in your sin and headed for eternal death."

I am so glad he finished his wordless statement by coming and dying for us. He indicated that the price was now paid - that he had overcome our sin. Thanks, Lord, for telling us the truth. Every time.