‘Tonight, I A
m Grateful’
November 17, 2008
Tonight, I am grateful. I have reason to be grateful. Today is Kaitlind’s twentieth birthday. Wow, it does not seem possible that nineteen years came and went so quickly.
Twenty years ago tonight we were in Presbyterian Hospital in Charlotte, North Carolina. Kaitlind was born at 6:45am. She was much more than I could have ever dreamed. God had already blown my mind thoroughly when He gave me Mary Gaye. His precious gift was far more than I would have ever argued that I deserved. Then He gave us Kaitlind and there was reinforced once again that I was the richest man in the world.
Shortly after Kaitlind’s birth, without warning, Mary Gaye was swept into emergency surgery. I sat just next to the surgery entrance where I could hear the excited and frantic attempts to save her. Later that night, I made my way between the two floors to visit our first child and the Intensive Care Unit to monitor Mary Gaye’s struggle for life.
Twenty years ago tonight I the polar-opposites and extremes: the joy of Kaitlind’s birth and the intense pain of Mary Gaye’s fight for life taking place at the same time. While it was the most intense pain I have ever experienced it was also the most defining moment of my life aside from my Salvation and Holy Spirit baptism. I saw Father God as I had never seen or experienced Him before.
When you have ‘no leg’ to stand on: when you have no ‘strings you can pull:’ all that you need is God and Father God is all that you need.
Second, Father God works best at bringing life and answers out of nothing. Jesus waited until Lazarus was, in the mind of the Jews, a hopeless situation before He called him out of the grave.
The deepest worship, the purest praise comes from those who have been broken, crushed, wounded, or abandoned to the most hopeless situations, endured and came through with a faith that had been purified by the fire-trials these situations bring.
I no longer have bad days. I’ve had bad days and what could constitute for me or others ‘a bad day’ will never again involve traffic, people’s attitudes or insults, impatience and the like. I save the emotional energy that could be spent on wrangling with these temporary issues for the serious things of life and eternity.
Father God can (and wants to) bring good out of situations that you may be convinced could contain no molecule of anything good in it at all. Father God brings the supernatural out of things that man would consider hopeless or impossible. Isaiah said that Jesus came like a ‘Root’ out of dry ground. In other words, Jesus came to us like a ‘Seed’ planted in barren soil. Where you seem to see no potential for good is possibly the very place where Father God will bring the supernatural to pass in your life.
I hope you enjoy this music video ‘Yesterday’ by Mary Mary
You know we love you . . .
Pastors Freddie and Mary Gaye
Pastor Freddie Steel - Life Church of Chicagoland - revfts@usa.net - www.lifeinchicago.org - 708-824-1501
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