The Joyful "THROUGH"
Aug 3, 2010 by
The concept of “Through “ has been rolling around in my head lately. The thing that has really brought it to my ready consciousness is the fact that my precious father is dying. He now weighs about 80 pounds and is literally a skeleton with skin on. My mother and my brother are still caring for him at home and the amazing thing is that he has no bedsores, gets up to eat for every meal (with their help) and he really enjoys “his people”. My mom and brother are living “through” this very hard “Valley of the Shadow of Death” experience and they give my father so much dignity, so much love, such genuine CARE every day. Seeing this has reminded me that life is very precious to God. For whatever sovereign reason, God has not chosen to give my dad his glorified, pain-free body yet. Instead, God is continually renewing my mom’s strength like the eagle in flight and He is continually helping all of them “through”. 2 Cor. 4:16 says, “Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.” Daily my mom goes directly to the Lord for her strength. Daily my brother prays with my mother – often at various times during the day…they bow in prayer for wisdom, for protection, for HELP. It was such a beautiful thing to witness the “Through” of this very tough situation!
Another situation which has me fermenting the concept of “Through” is a friend of ours is currently out of work. Ben and I know that “THROUGH” so well. Seeing the many familiar feelings and days as our friend walks the “Job Journey” we felt and experienced brings back some painful memories for me. It also brings back the very aroma of the Lord Jesus though. When Ben was job-less, Jesus was so close to us it was as if we could hold up a hand and touch the hem of His garment! Is. 43:2 says, “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.” I know I have written about this passage many times before but the Job Journey really reminds me of how true this verse is! God never promised we wouldn’t get hot or wet, but He did promise it would not overwhelm us to the point of death because HE is WITH us in that “Through”.
Another wonderful “Through Verse” comes to mind as I reflect on the Lakeside Lessons I’ve learned. This verse is the one I put in Josh’s crib when he quit breathing and I thought (along with everyone else that saw him) he was going to die…” Deuteronomy 31:6 “Be strong and courageous, do not be afraid or tremble at them, for the LORD your God is the one who goes with you. He will not fail you or forsake you.”
I am coming to the conclusion that God gives us plenty of “Through” time in our lives so that we are not tempted to live a “high five” lifestyle with him. When we have experiences that are making us tread water – especially the ones when the treading goes on for a lifetime, we learn the amazing truth that the God of the Universe knows our name! We are forced to beat a well-worn path to His throne because the experience is so big and so long, we can’t hold our breath and wait for it to pass. If the problem is solved really quickly, there is a tendency to give God a big “High Five” and a quick “Thank You” and then run off to the next thing.
It is when we start trying to hold our breath until a problem is over to wait it out that we keep finding ourselves fainting! In the case of my mom, she has been my dad’s only caretaker for over 7 years now. At first dad’s need for help was more a matter of standby assistance. Now it is the ultimate act of love as she even has to adjust his hands on the blanket at night so he is not frustrated by getting them caught under the blanket when he can’t seem to pull them out! She is daily laying down her life for her friend…and although my dad has been her best friend for over 56 years, the real friend she is laying down her life for is Jesus Christ. I watched my mom die to herself daily, as she would interrupt her own breakfast to feed dad and then end up having soggy food herself. I watched her get up in the night to change his position and then be tired the next day. I saw her plan out the strategic “pill popping moments” so he could get his blue pill four times in his waking hours and keep what little mobility he still has in his limbs. Dad often clenches his teeth making the pill reception almost impossible. But my mom would wait like a vulture hovering over a half- squashed snake on the road and would swoop down every time he had his mouth halfway open in four-hour intervals to pop the pill in when the teeth were not clenched. All of this took what little “me time” she might have hoped to keep for herself. Yet she did it all without a word of complaint. No one usually sees any of those and countless other daily kindnesses and thus it bears out the fact that she is doing what she does not for the praise of man, but rather for Jesus.
It is when we keep walking through each situation and we really crave the Lord in the the midst – not crave Him for the privilege of fretting in prayer, but rather resting in His promises in order to enjoy His presence with us through worship, that we really begin to know what abundant life looks like. It is not the material possessions that many of us think are the trappings of abundant life. It is the HELP OF HIS PRESENCE in the midst! Psalm 66:12 says “You made men ride over our heads; we went through fire and through water, Yet You brought us out into a place of abundance. Psalm 46:1 tells us that God is our every present HELP in time of trouble.” THAT is what the ABUNDANCE means. Knowing that He is walking THROUGH the fire with us…that He is helping us by keeping pace and quietly whispering, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” (2 Corinthians 12:9a) is what the broad place looks like!
For many years of my life I have wrestled through trouble and have come out with sweaty palms and white knuckles. I’ve gone through the motions of making it “Through” but because I am a linear person – I like things to progress in neat little packages and I like to put stuff behind me – especially icky stuff or hard stuff, I held my breath during hard problems. I would be faithful to God but I did not have the trust level that God wants me to have. I was waiting until I was “Through” – as in, on the other side, rather than trusting peacefully all the way through.
E.M. Bounds says, “Trust is faith that has become absolute, approved and accomplished. When all is said and done, there is a sort of risk in faith and its exercise. But trust is firm belief; it is faith in full bloom.” Watching my mom and brother walk in their firm belief that the small, every day exercise of doing the next thing next WITH THE LORD, no matter whether others are seeing those acts as worthy or not, is that kind of trust just described. It is resting in the fact that the Lord has placed them in this place and though it seems somewhat dessert like, they keep trusting the Lord to give them one more day’s worth of strength. I asked my brother how he is doing the things he is doing and bearing up under the many things that are hard in his life right now and he said, “I only do it for one day. I do not think about needing to do this all over again tomorrow. I just do this for one day and trust that the Lord IS giving me strength for today.”
There is no breath-holding in that answer. He is not waiting to praise God when everything is all better. He is praising God THROUGH. He has been witnessing to the Indians on the many reservations he visits…and is seeing fruit. My breath-holding method would have told the Lord, “When You are all done with the many hard things I’ve got going on, I’ll go be a great witness.” Instead, my brother has collected a box of about 100 tracts and he counts his day a success in terms of how many tracts he gave out that day! He has joy DURING the THROUGH!
So my new prayer is that the Lord will help me to see HIM in every situation It probably sounds strange, but I am praying for myself the prayer Paul prayed for the Colossians in chapter 1:9-11: “For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God; Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness.” This is my prayer for my mom and brother, for my friend that is out of work…for my Gap Sisters. It is this renewal daily that I want. I am joyfully walking “Through”.
Vicki Feinn was raised in a Christian home and accepted Jesus as her savior at the age of five. At the age of eleven she gave herself to the Lord to be used in any way He wanted to use her. 
