Long And Happy

I was watching Entertainment Tonight the other day.

Now, that is not a show I would normally be watching, but it happened to be on and I was too lazy to change the channel.  No, I take that back.  I was waiting for Last Man Standing, and it just wasn't that important to me to change the channel.

Anyway, I was watching Entertainment Tonight, and they were doing an interview with Jane Seymore, who recently celebrated her 62 birthday.  The topic of her recent separation from her fourth husband came up.  Afterwards, when they cut back to the studio, the person who had done the interview remarked that Jane Seymore had had four long and happy marriages.   

I was both shocked and saddened by this statement.  Four long and happy marriages?  They can't have been too long, because she's had four of them.  And if they were so happy, why did they end in divorce?  In the interest of full disclosure, I suppose it's possible that one or more of her husbands passed, but frankly, I'm not interested enough in Jane Seymore's marital statistics to google it.  And I'm saddened that Hollywood -- and thus the American culture-- seems to accept this as the norm.

I know some people that Hollywood could take a lesson from.

This is my aunt and uncle.  

 Aunt Martha is my dad's oldest sister.  She and my uncle will be celebrating their 68th wedding anniversary next month.  I'll let that sink in a moment.

Sixty eight years.  They had already been married 6 years when Jane Seymore was born.  They are both in their 90s now, and their health is becoming a struggle, but they are still as much in love as the day they married.

A few years back, when Aunt Martha was visiting here, she told me the story of how Uncle Lavergne had surprised her coming back from the war.

Yes, THE war.  World War II. 

This was before they were married.  She knew he was coming home, but he'd told her that he'd be home at a later date.  She was working as a bank teller, and rode to work that morning with a coworker.  They had to park about two blocks away, then walk the rest of the way to the bank.  She told me that she turned the corner and saw my uncle standing there and, psewwww off into his arms she ran.

Her boss was kind enough to give her the day off, and they went and spent the day with his mother.  At this point in the story, my auntie looked me straight in the eye and said with all seriousness, "And that was a good day."

Aunt Martha's health is gone now.  She's like a newborn baby in many aspects.  My uncle has to pretty much do everything for her.  He has to dress her, and bathe her, and change her Depends. He could put her in an old folks home, but he's not going to do that.  She's his wife and he loves her.

Aunt Martha's mind is pretty much gone, too.   She doesn't know who anyone is.  Half of the time she doesn't even know who my uncle is.  She just knows he is the man who takes care of her.

And she knows that she loves him.

And that's all that matters.


I have a friend, Amy, whose husband has a horrible, horrible debilitating disease called neuromyelitis optica.  It attacks the spinal cord and the optic nerves.  It has robbed Gary of his sight and most of his ability to move.  If he can walk from one side of the room to the other, they consider that a good day.  Most days, he can't even hold his head up straight.  Eventually, the disease will claim his life.

Amy has to do everything for Gary.  Everything.  She has to get him out of bed and into his wheelchair.  She has to bathe him and dress him, and make sure he takes his medications, and at the same time, support the both of them with her own screenprinting business.

She works herself to exhaustion, and worries herself sick, but you will never, ever, ever her mention that anything she does for Gary is a burden.  You will never, ever, ever hear her even so much as hint that Gary is a burden to her.  What she does talk about is how much joy he brings to her life.

And how much she loves him.

And that's all that matters.



You know, maybe someday I'll get married again.  Maybe not, I don't know.  But if it turns out that marriage is part of God's plan for my future, it won't be Hollywood, or the pop culture that I look to as a role model.  No, I will look no further than Aunt Martha and Uncle Lavergne, and Amy and Gary Clark. 

It is these two couples who have taught me what marriage is truly all about.

Jane Seymore could take a few lessons from them, too.

Does God Protect The Holy Man?

Today at work, I walked up on a couple of my co-workers having an intense conversation.  As I approached, one of them turned to me and asked

Does God protect the holy man?

Well, of course, the short answer to that is no.  God allowed his own son to die, and you just don't get any holier than that.

My friend replied that God allowed that to happen to benefit mankind.  I had to agree with him.  God didn't protect his own son, because his death served a higher purpose, that being our redemption.   Sometimes, God doesn't protect us, so that our suffering can serve a higher purpose, and we may never know what that purpose is.  We just have to trust in God's plan. 

My friend said, "But isn't there some verse in the Bible about God protecting his people?"  I couldn't think of one right at the time, but after I got home, I decided to try to find a verse like he was talking about.

After tearing up my house looking for my trusty concordance (yes I really do have my own concordance; it was a Christmas gift from a suitor trying to score points, and it almost worked), and finding it on the end table by my couch-- right where I'd left it, funny that-- I opened my Bible app on my iPhone and did a little searching.  I'm not sure which verse he was thinking of, but I did find John 17: 15, which says

My prayer is not that you take them out of the world, but that you protect them from the evil one.

And another in 2 Thessalonians 3:3

But the Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen you and protect you from the evil one

I think the most relevant one, at least in my mind is John 10:29

My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father's hand.

What these verses mean is that we have eternal protection in our salvation.  What they do not mean is that we will never face troubles in this life.  See, a lot of people have this false idea that if they get saved, if they trust Jesus, if they become a Christian, nothing bad will ever happen to them.  Their lives will be all hunky dory peachy keen, they'll have plenty of money, and will sail smoothly through life until they die peacefully in their sleep at age 101.

This couldn't be further from the truth.

Jesus even said it in the Sermon On The Mount:  Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you because of me.  (Matthew 5; 11) 

Not if people persecute you.  When people persecute you. 

He said it even more plainly in Luke 21: 12

But before all this, they will seize you and persecute you.

This certainly doesn't imply a life of ease and comfort.  When you look at history, and even at our present times, you will see that God offers no such promise.

Think about it...

Ten of the 12 original disciples were executed (Judas having hanged himself, and John being exiled to the aisle of Patmos so he could write the book of Revelation).

Stephen was stoned to death.  Paul was executed and --as I pointed out to my friend -- there was a reason the early Christians had church services in the graveyard.  They were regularly rounded up and fed to the lions, or used as bait in bloodsports in the great arenas.  One of the emperors ( I don't remember which one-- I'm thinking maybe Nero or Claudius) used to hang Christians on poles, douse them in oil, and set them on fire to make streetlights for Rome.

Streetlights, people.

Out of people, people!

There were times when the roads outside of Rome were lined with hundreds of crucified Christians for miles upon miles. For hundreds of years, people were tortured and executed for the crime of being a Christian.  Doesn't sound like God was protecting them, does it?

Oh, but that was a long time ago, you say.  That couldn't happen today, you say.  You might want to think again on that one.  According to The Hoover Institution,

Few people realize that we are today living through the largest persecution of Christians in history, worse even than the famous attacks under ancient Roman emperors like Diocletian and Nero. Estimates of the numbers of Christians under assault range from 100-200 million. According to one estimate, a Christian is martyred every five minutes.

Every five minutes.

A Christian dies every five minutes.  The numbers are simply staggering.  All over the world, Indonesia, The Sudan, Egypt and elsewhere -- every day I read a new report of Christians under attack.  Christians murdered just for being Christians.

Christian persecution is at an all time high these days, even here in America.  What?  You're crazy.  We aren't being persecuted for our religion here!

Think about it.  We can't pray at school any more -- at least 49 states can't.  We can't say Merry Christmas any more.  Atheists are suing to have every last hint of God removed from our public lives (while at the same time screeching about us shoving our religion down their throats). They're even trying to get our national motto off of our money, and the phrase Under God removed from the Pledge of Allegiance.   Not sure why, because they don't allow us to say the pledge any more anyway.

Chaplains in the military can't express their Christian faith.  People are being fined for holding Bible studies in their homes.  Christian groups and clubs are being banned from colleges and high schools, even though they are totally voluntary and no one is being forced to join.  Voluntary prayer walks are banned from all public properties. 

Oh, but we're not being murdered for being Christians in America.  Really?  Just this year, two men were murdered in New Jersey for the simple reason that they were Christians.   In Dearborn, Michigan, Christians gathering to pray were stoned by local Muslims, while local police stood by watching and doing nothing, because they said that no laws were being broken. 

But these are kind of extreme examples, aren't they?  Doesn't God protect ordinary people?

I have a couple of friends, one of the Godliest couples I know.  The husband is suffering from a horrible debilitating illness.  It has robbed him of his most of his sight, and his ability to walk.  Soon, it will take his life.  The wife owns her own business, and works herself to exhaustion providing for them, and taking care of him-- often to the neglect of her own health.  As if that isn't enough, last week, their house got struck by lightening.

Another very Godly man I knew, died of cancer at age 33, leaving behind a wife and three small children.

And still another friend of mine died earlier this month of cancer.  She was my age.

I could go on and on listing examples of bad things happening to good people that I know. 

These are common, ordinary people, yet God didn't protect them.  Or did he?

Look back up at that third verse I quoted above....

My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father's hand.  John 10:29

God never promised we wouldn't have troubles in this world.  He never promised that bad things would never happen, that we would never get sick, or die, or get robbed, or murdered, or raped, or have our houses burn down, or whatever.

What he did promise is that if we put our faith in him, he would be there with us through everything.  Everything.  That he would never fail or forsake us.

And that when the end comes, he would take us home.

No one, nothing, can change that.

So, the long answer to my friend's question is ultimately yes.  God does protect his children-- maybe not in the way my friend intended, but he does protect us, often in ways we can't even imagine.


On Christ the solid rock I stand...that's all the protection I need.

Run Josh, Run!

Dee is one of the oldest and dearest friends I have. I've known her since college, and can't imagine my life without her. She is a beautiful, vivacious, loving, generous person, and she brings joy to everyone she meets.

There's just one thing about Dee. She hates to exercise. Hates it. Yet, this Sunday, Dee is going to run her first ever full Marathon.

How did a couch potato who hates to exercise become a marathon runner? Well, I'll tell you.

It all started back in November of 2009...See, Dee has a nephew, Joshua, who loves to run.  He lives for Jesus, but he loves to run.  Suddenly, in the blink of an eye, this fine young Christian man could no longer run.  In the blink of an eye, with the grinding, screeching sound of twisting metal and shattered glass, this fine young Christian man lay fighting for his life.

They weren't sure at first if he would even survive, his injuries were so severe. The worst injury of all was to his brain. Traumatic Brain Injury, it is called.  And it is often fatal. They didn't know if Joshua would live, but he did.  One night, then a second, and a third. As hours stretched to days, and days to weeks, when it appeared his life was no longer in jeopardy, Joshua's long, slow process of rehabilitation began.

He was completely helpless at first.  He had to learn to walk again, to talk again, even to swallow again.  He was like a newborn baby --starting over at 17.  But he persevered.  Buoyed by the prayers not only of family and friends, but by strangers who heard his story and felt moved by it,  he slowly regained his strength.  He slowly began becoming himself again. 

Throughout all of this, Dee was by his side, in spirit, even when she couldn't be physically present.  Throughout all of this, Dee --as so many of us in that situation do--felt helpless.  Felt as if she could only stand and watch.

But Dee realized that there was something she could do.  She could run.  She could run for Josh:

So, Josh, when you can't run, we'll run for you. When you can run, we'll run with you...and all the time, we're running behind you! Run, Josh...Run!!!

Love beyond measure!

And in doing so, she would find a way to tell his story.  If she could just inspire one person to pray for Josh, she would accomplish her mission.

She began entering races --short ones at first, but races nonetheless.  She hated it.  She cried.  She threw up.  But she ran, because she ran for Josh.  When it became difficult, and she wanted to quit, she thought of Josh, who couldn't quit, and she kept running.  When the pain became too great for her to bear, she thought of Josh, who had no choice but to endure, and so she endured as well.

After her first 5K event, Dee wrote this (which I copped from her Facebook wall): 

...and I run...because you can't, Josh...I run FOR you...there's more life for you to live...more for you to give...and I run...and every step, I cry. My heart is SO heavy for you. My heart aches for you to get better....and run.

I run...and I cry. People are watching from the sidelines. They see my little homemade flier on my shirt. They see your picture...and I cry. People are cheering. "Good job," they say. "Keep up the good work!" "You can do it!" "You're almost there!" they cheer....then I hear these sweet words, "We're praying for your Josh!" and I run....the road is straight...but it's full of bumps...and it has a slight slope up...but I can do it...and I run....because I run FOR you...because you can't...just yet.

Now, some 16 months later, Joshua has made significant improvement. You can see his story in this video.



Sunday Dee will run her first full marathon. She will cry. She will throw up. She will whine and want to quit. But she won't. Because she runs for Josh. And when the pain gets too great for her to bear, she will think of Josh, and she will remember that he can't quit, so she won't either. She will keep running, and she will finish the race.

Because she runs for Josh.

But what Dee may not realize is the impact she has had on those around her.  She may never know what impact her shining example of completely Christlike love has had on someone who may not even know her.  She may never know how many lives she touched until that day when she hears, "well done, thou good and faithful servant."

Until that day, she will keep running.  She may think she runs for Josh, and she does, but really, she runs for Jesus.

And great will be her reward.

Run Dee...Run!