Dear Prayer Warriors,
The Fount of Renewal
I have a retired military neighbor who likes to keep busy and his bride often cooks a little extra to send it over to us. If we visit, they always have a sweet treat for my kids to enjoy. They have grown kids and need little, they give much, always stating, “It’s nothing, it’s really nothing.” God gave us a great example of “loving your neighbor” right in front of us. He has helped me on a number of home improvement things and given guidance about general maintenance. He’s the guy on the street with two trucks, one that has an undeniable look of 20+ years of duty to him and the other is his “Sunday truck” well waxed and low miles.
About a month ago Lindsey cleaned the junk off our patio and had a truck load of bulky garbage items to take to the dump. So I called my handy neighbor and asked to borrow his truck. After explaining the task, he said: “Just leave it out front and I will pick it up.” It's like he’s out to make our life easier. Lindsey placed it all out front and sure enough he scooped it up. The most notable thing we discarded was our crib, it restrained all of our kids except for Anna.
During our week of remembrance of Simon and his passing in early July, my lawn mower stopped working. I asked my guy to come have a look. He gave the diagnosis and told me to come on by his house, he had a surprise for us. There, on his back patio, he had transformed our crib into a kid’s picnic table, an Etsy worthy picnic table. With just one glance Lindsey recognized the teething marks and cried at the beauty of it repurposed. This awesome kid’s table we were gifted “at just the right time” signifies God repurposing my family through our grief and growth. Jesus is redeeming those who run to Him. Losing my son urges me not to waste my life, I pray to be a part of what God is doing! Even in these prayer emails, I pray that God would activate my spiritual gift of encouragement.
So today, in light of what we’ve been through, I pray I look more like that picnic table and less like the broken-down crib that spent months outside by our trash cans. Come have dinner with us, sing with us. The salvation that comes from Him matters today. Let the prayers for renewal continue, for steps of faith.
The Fount of Hopefulness
“6 The wolf will live with the lamb,
and the leopard will lie down with the goat.
The calf, the young lion, and the fatling will be together,
and a child will lead them.
7 The cow and the bear will graze,
their young ones will lie down together,
and the lion will eat straw like the ox.
8 An infant will play beside the cobra’s pit,
and a toddler will put his hand into a snake’s den.
9 None will harm or destroy another
on My entire holy mountain,
for the land will be as full
of the knowledge of the Lord
as the sea is filled with water.” Isaiah 11:6-9 (HCSB)
My soul revels in this passage of Scripture, I think on it, on the implications. I find the antithesis of the death of my son in verses 8 and 9. All of this is astonishing, like a return to the Garden of Eden. The last verse is a rocket ship of wonder to me! What would it be like to live in a world where every living thing would be filled with the knowledge of God? doesn’t our post-Christian culture boast that it doesn’t know God? It’s incredible to consider every human being as “full of the knowledge of the Lord”. What a remedy, maranatha!
This has been my pastime in grief. Not just being in God’s Word, but opening my mind to Heavenly things (or Millennial Reign things) as a future expectation, often discussing these things with my bride Lindsey. Without knowing, she challenged me to effectively remove my “bucket list” and turn it into a “to do” list on the new earth. My agenda of things here can wait including my trans-Atlantic sailboat trip ending in the south of France. I let go of these things and see God’s bucket list for His children instead: Trusting God by His Word. Sharing the Gospel in boldness. Loving in such a way that proves I am His disciple. Unending compassion for the lost and poor. Serving all. Praying fervently and frequently. Blessing and encouraging His Church.
The Fount of Remembrance
At the two-year mark, I could not foresee God’s clear directive of what to do with the leftover money from all the giving we received upon Simon passing. It became a kind of thing holding us back. We felt it needed to be used to help us move on. So many people I never met gave, and people we knew gave generously. I never understood why, “These guys lost a kid, let's give them money!?!” I asked God about it, and He had me rest on the fact that this was their way of sharing our grief. It was to bless us and show support. A form of comfort amid the tragedy.
We used all we needed for individualized therapies for each family member except Victor and Anna. The money helped us grieve to buy for the poor in sizes that Simon would have been. We thought about giving it all to God’s mission as it relates to Simon’s passions like homelessness, or Community Bible Study. We did that to a generous extent. We considered paying a huge chunk of our mortgage off, however that rang hollow. Then the Lord had me consider the passage where Simon Iscariot criticizes the women who anointed Jesus’ feet with expensive oil. Jesus’ reply showed me that her loving act is worthwhile, priceless, causing that woman's generous act to be remembered always.
After a surprise stumbling upon, we found a private, year-round campground that sells campsites. We prayed and visited a few times. We bought a lot and a 20-year-old camper that has had some surprises. I am calling the place Simon’s camp. It is our aim that this camp will grow memories for our family, that it would be an Ebenezer commemorating “thus far the Lord has helped us.” It’s this legacy that Simon has given to us, a place to recall and remember his liveliness and love, to intentionally celebrate the things Simon loved. God’s faithfulness, peace, and goodness has been shining through. Simon loved camping but only experienced it 3 times. With Anna it’s been difficult to camp given her baggage of medical stuff. By having our own site this allows us to keep much of what she needs up there so we can just get in the car and go camping. I never imagined owning an RV, with my pay, we could never have afforded this kind of thing. Praise God, who blesses and surprises us. Who wants to go camping with us?
I remain thankful to be Simon’s dad. It’s becoming harder to remember, I lean more on the recorded things. His sweetness softened me! The mission of being Simon’s dad is one of the best things on my life’s resume. What a trophy of God’s grace. I have peace knowing that God is well pleased at the faith Simon grew in his short years on earth. What a precious, exceptional gift being a father is! I also have much more raising and growing left to do in this family!!
Praise God for:
-A wonderful summer of life-giving things. We returned to the Joni and Friend family respite camp in Nebraska. Renee and I visited my brother Olivier and his family in North Carolina.
-The Lord’s many ways of enriching our life, for Simon’s camp.
Please Pray for:
-The start of Kindergarten for Renee. That she will enjoy learning and growing interests. That she would make new friends that spur her on in faith and wonder.
-Anna to have stable and healthy neurological connections. We had a seizure night about three weeks ago where we needed to use the “rescue med” and take her to the ER. Pray that we would also be accepted into a clinic specializing in the use of her eye gaze device.
-continued direction from the Lord on how to comfort others with the comfort God has shown us.
