Wednesday, February 27, 2019

Suffering, Misery, and Worship




Dearest Prayer Warriors,

In 2 Samuel 15, King David is fleeing from Jerusalem because his son Absalom was closing in to overthrow him. He acts like a defeated king leaving his city weeping, barefooted, praying, and covering his head all the way up to the Mount of Olives. David confesses that he hasn’t been pleasing to God and that he might not return, David says of God: “Let Him do to me whatever seems good to Him.”  Almost like a take-me-out-of-my-misery-plea. His household is with him weeping and walking almost like an exile scene.

Then it says “David was coming to the summit, where God was worshiped...” (2 Samuel 15:32) The king goes to a place of worship in a time when he is being defeated, when suffering and misery at the hand of his son removes him from his city. How is worship generated in David then and there? This context in which David wrote Psalm 3. The king’s world is caving in but on papyrus paper the king worships. David’s praise and confidence in God shown in Psalm 3 is unshakable. By faith, inwardly he is not a man of misery and suffering though it is all around. I’ll have to ask David where exactly he was when he wrote Psalm 3, I wouldn’t be surprised if he says “the Mount of Olives.”  

To varying degrees Anna suffers daily, it can be as little as her daily gasping for her breathing or a panicked cough to clear the saliva pooling in her throat. I think also of her suffering from the sores on her hands and wrists because she bits herself almost all day long. Our suffering as a parent is more inward, harping on our hearts and minds. My pastor sums up this version of suffering with the question “so how are you dealing with the disappointment?” it sounds harsh but it is accurate. Our journey can leave us like David saying “let God do whatever He sees fit to do to me.” Who wants to make our medical decisions? On our own we would be numb from them, too many too often. Nobody is wise when choosing the lesser of two evils.  

Instead pray for us that we would come to a point in our walk with Jesus where we can answer that disappointment with worship. Lindsey and I have chosen to see our daughter’s suffering as a part of God’s will. For us, the suffering is present and at times loud -but let the attributes of God be on our lips! Let the qualities of Christ’s righteousness bless the Lord from within us! May the complexities of Anna and her suffering make us humble and holy! By faith we say “it is well with my soul.” Surely this is the Psalm 3 worship being applied to our context.

Today for example, we visited the physiatrist. It’s gotta be my least favorite of Anna’s specialists. This doctor evaluates the spasticity of the cerebral palsy as it relates to Anna’s physical growth, her joints, muscle tone, and motor skill ability. This doctor prescribes the muscle relaxer, braces, and the medical equipment. As we were in the room waiting, my bride looked over at me and said “are you tired, you don’t look yourself, are you ok?” I was caught preoccupied in anxiety, all I could think about is the suffering. I had harbored all these things about Anna that I expected the doctor to say. Like my guilt for not stretching Anna as much as I possibly could or how placing Anna in her stander 30 minutes more each day would have made her hip joint come in perfect. It is the Accuser, Satan that infiltrated me via anxious thinking.  Seeing the suffering is easy especially when false guilt wants to join in. I must ask the Lord to bring me to these meetings “prayed up”, may the doctor’s office be a place of worship not inner accusation. In truth, the doctor did say the bad after numerous encouragements and good things. Anna is not degenerative because my God is restorative.

Our Praiseworthy God works amid all suffering all the time in this fallen world under no obligation to intervene. Yet He chooses to and for His glory and fame. The miraculous is still at work in the suffering!  Therefore, let’s give God accolades and ascribe worth to the name of Jesus no matter the “disappointment”. In truth, our praises are actually a provision that God gives us to endure everything, even our praise to Him is a gift from Him!

Please Pray for:
-Renée to be BFF’s with Anna
-a miraculous placement of the femur bone into the hip joint
-wisdom and caution for the right dosage as we up the muscle relaxer medication, that all the efforts and work in head control and core muscles would not be compromised by over medication.  
-a greater surrender to the sovereignty of God and His will for us.
-the Lord to inhabit the praises of His people amid their sufferings

*Praise and honor to our Lord for upholding Anna and answering our prayers with grace, love, and miracles over the last 5 years. Anna turns 5 years old on Saturday!  

Humble thanks,

The Currat 5

Sunday, February 17, 2019

Renée Eliana Currat



Dear Prayer Warriors,

Rejoice with me family, loved ones, brothers and sisters in Christ: yesterday we welcomed our second daughter Renée Eliana Currat to our family. We are still celebrating the love God has so graciously lavished on us through this child. We have come to know that life lived out in the light of Jesus means we hide nothing and ask for the miraculous to our Loving Heavenly Father.  I didn’t know we needed a 7-pound and 20-inch gift on loan from God, but He did!

We’re discovering how God fitted and formed, molded and fashioned us to receive His grace for growing with Renée. (Even finding the keyboard shortcut for the “é” was enough for me to wiggle out some hasty impatience.) God has been reminding me that the walk of faith in Jesus is done by looking right at Him -not comparing, coveting, and looking others.

After I found out that we were expecting a third child I think I said my shortest confessional prayer ever: “God, I’m going to have to trust you more.” (Then tears.) Like any loving father, God encouraged me with His presence and His Words after. Since then, my walk with Jesus has been marked with deeper drinks of Living Water this year, bolder choices causing me to believe God for impossible things. What a gift of grace to see how He has honored my need to trust Him more with this coming child!

Anna’s traumatic birth allowed a growth of fear to creep into our hearts regarding the labor and delivery of another child. We were strong in prayer to combat this during Simon’s birth and God brought about such victory because of his health. But still our hearts were heavy and gripped with fear because Simon’s birth was incredibly difficult to endure as well. Through it all God kept Lindsey’s heart soft and hopeful allowing her to apply her faith in a miracle once again through the birth of Renée. I wish I could say was operating under a promise of faith too, but I remember speaking to Lindsey with unworked through fear regarding her labor and delivery choices.

Valentine’s Day evening we went to the hospital, I texted a few of you saying “we have gone through the valley of birthing, may God take us to the mountaintop this time.”  We praise and worship the Lord for doing just that miracle for us. Lindsey demonstrated courage in Christ as she gave birth to Renée; It makes me think of the passage in Scripture when Elizabeth said to expectant Mary: “ Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her!”

Renée
 Born Again
 “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,”
1 Peter 1:3
Eliana
 My God has answered me
“I sought the LORD, and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears.” Psalm 34:4

To God All Praise and Glory!
Nic, Lindsey, Anna, Simon, and Renée