A Geek’s Look at Salvation

Dear Lord; Good morning Father!

Over the last couple weeks Father, it seems that I’ve been performing more and more data recovery services at my office.  It’s actually work that I enjoy; taking a damaged hard drive where the contents have been rendered inaccessible and extracting the client’s seemingly lost bits of information contained therein.  It’s a puzzle sometimes, and each drive has it’s own nuances that requires specific “massaging” to get to the data.

For the client, it’s a time of trial to be sure.  Critical business data, family photos, tax returns or years of childhood videos may hang in the balance.  People tend to underestimate the importance and value of the information they entrust to their computers these days, and when it’s not there all of a sudden it can be quite a shock.  In the end, It’s a wonderfully satisfying feeling for me to hand them back something precious that they thought was lost to them forever.

Hold on… That’s what You do for us!

“But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.” – Ephesians 2:4-5

We bring our lost and broken selves to Your Feet Lord, and through Your Son Jesus Christ we are “recovered” and made whole again.  You return to us the most precious part of ourselves, and delight in doing so.

I never thought of you as a fellow geek Father… I like it.  🙂

Heavenly Father, thank You for “recovering me” from my sin and brokenness.  Please continue to fill my spirit with new and beautiful “data”, and assist me in promoting Your Wondrous Service to others.  Amen.

~Phather Phil

In His Skillful Hands

Dear Lord; Good afternoon Father.

Thank You Lord, for starting my day off so pleasantly this morning.  I always like waking to the sound of Your Voice in my head, especially when the message is “Today is a Good Day”.  Well, it’s just after lunchtime here now and so far it truly has been as you prepared me; A good day.  🙂

In the beginning of the year Father, You gave me a word to focus my energies and prayers on.  It wasn’t a word I would have chosen sans Your intervention, but You were quite insistent at the time as I remember so I adopted it as my own.  The word was Accept.

Today Lord, I thought I’d discuss a couple of the ways “our” word choice has impacted me thus far, and presented itself in my life.

The beginning of “The Serenity Prayer” comes immediately to mind Father :

“God, grant me the serenity to Accept the things I cannot change…” – Reinhold Niebuhr

As You know, this has always been a rough one for me Lord.  Many of my most significant upsets have come from situations which I have little or no control over.  With Your help, I’ve been working on this flaw in my character and I can honestly say that we’ve made some progress.  I still have more than a few stresses in my life right now, but I’ve learned to better Accept those things which I can’t fix and focus my efforts on the ones I can make positive change in.

Along those same lines Father, I’m learning to Accept assistance more readily from others as well.  I’ve always prided myself (I know… another nasty word, but we’re making progress on that flaw too.) on being reasonably independent, but through my journey to You I’ve realized that You put us all here together for a reason.  When I can help someone, I should but I also need to be open to Accepting help from others as well.  It’s still a struggle sometimes for me to show that vulnerability, but I’m happy to say that barrier is lower than it used to be.

Needless to say, I now understand why You chose this word for me.  I obviously have some significant room for growth and Acceptance appears to be the key to much of that.

Heavenly Father, thank You for continuing to Guide me in Your Grace.  I am but clay in Your Skillful Hands, eager to be molded into a form which can best serve Your Will.  Amen.

~Phather Phil

Out of the Mouths of Babes

Dear Lord; This morning Father, I want to share a story with You; A very powerful story that brought both my wife and I to tears last night.

It was a long day yesterday Lord.  Between the ice storm which led to school delays and then closings, and a number of other typical daily stresses, Shannon and I both came home a bit worn down.  Grabbing the mail on the way in the house, Shannon spotted a hand-addressed envelope from the kids’ school.  She opened it up, and inside was a letter written to us by one of the office staff regarding Jonathan.  She quietly read the letter, laid it down and started to cry.

The letter was a personal note from one of the school administrative staff detailing a conversation she’d had with Jonathan the previous Friday.  Apparently, Jonathan was assisting with shuttling some computer equipment between his classroom and the office, and helping with putting it away.  At some point during this process, he started talking to one of the ladies in the office and asked her if she was familiar with a man called Jesus Christ.  While surprised, she replied that yes, she was very familiar with Jesus.  He then went on to tell her all about his disease (Langerhans Cell Histiocytosis), his surgeries, treatments and chemotherapy as an infant, and how he’d gotten through all those trials and was doing very well now.  She told him how wonderful he looked and that she was glad everything was doing so well, at which time he then left to go back to class.

What Jonathan didn’t know however, was that her husband had been battling two forms of serious cancers for many years, and that it was only through the grace of Christ that he was still alive.  Along with that, she indicated there were others within earshot going through similar trials who also took interest in his story.  She wrote that Jonathan’s unprompted testimony was exactly what she and others needed at that moment, and she was sure he was meant to be there to deliver Your message.  Her faith had been renewed, by the witness and encouragement of our little boy.

When I came home shortly thereafter and read the letter, there were tears in my eyes as well.

I talked to Jonathan later that evening about the conversation that prompted the letter (of course, not revealing what she’d written to me), and asked him : “What made you ask her if she knew Jesus?”.  He answered that he really didn’t know, and honestly didn’t remember what led up to it; It just came to him at the time.

You spoke through him Father, and to him it seemed perfectly natural and reasonable at the time.  May we all be that open to Your Voice Lord, and not be afraid to share it with others.

Thank You Father.  This touched me in a way that only You can.  Please bring Your Healing and Comfort to those going through these trials, and let us all be as effective and powerful a witness to Your Grace as the words of a child were that day.  Amen.

~Phather Phil

A Fresh Start

Dear Lord; Happy Monday Father!  To start off with Lord, I want to thank You for yet another lovely weekend.  It was a hectic couple of days, but we were able to be productive and yet still have some fun in the process.  I went into Friday night still on a “God High” from the release You’d given me that morning, and it carried my spirit through much of the weekend.  My heart felt cleansed, and it very much let me recharge my batteries for the challenges that lie ahead.

Along with the concept of a “fresh start”, I spent quite some time this weekend working on reinventing the phatherphil.org web site as well.  It’s been quite a process in planning and implementing, but with Your Guidance (and a lot of help from Google) I’m quite happy with what we came up with.  It’s obviously still a work in progress, but It feels like a good start.  🙂

Heavenly Father, I thank You for Your Presence and Guidance in my Life and for the Love You’ve shown myself and my family.  We are indeed Blessed and renewed each day by Your Grace.  Please let all those who yearn for meaning, for purpose and for understanding find Your Truth and be emboldened and encouraged.  Lead us through this week in Courage and in Strength so that we can see past our earthly worries and focus on Honoring Your Glory.  Amen.

~Phather Phil

Looking Forward…

Dear Lord; Good morning Father!  Yesterday, our conversation focused on the events of the year we’re about to leave behind, and what I’ve learned from it.  Therefore, today I thought we’d talk about moving forward, and some of the things I’d like to focus on for the upcoming year.

In holding with the last few Holiday posts I’ve made, I’d like to let my boys send their thoughts to You as well.  To that end, I asked them this morning what they were hoping 2011 would bring and what they were going to focus on to help make a positive change in their lives.

Here’s what they said :

Jonathan ( Age 11 ) – “I’d like to be able to spend more time with my family.  I want to learn how to do karate.  I want to spend more time with our friends and relatives, and have them over more often.  I’m going to be more involved in taking care of our animals.  I want to finish the new Bible I got for Christmas and learn more about God.  I’m going to work to be more thankful for the things that I have.”

Aidan ( Age 8 ) – “I’d like to see less crashes happen (car crashes) because I don’t want people to get hurt.  I want me and my friends to have a fun time in school.  I’d like my family to spend more time together.  I want less animals to get abandoned.  I’m going to finish reading my new Action Bible with Daddy and really want to learn about God.  I’m going to work to get better at reading so I can read bigger books.  I want to spend more time exercising.  And I want to wish God a Happy New Year.”

They’re still one of my biggest inspirations Lord, and I see so much of You in them each day.

As for myself, well I’m not big on New Years Resolutions but there are some things I’m planning on focusing on this coming year.

• As I mentioned yesterday, it’s been a rough year for my business.  I’m very much dedicated to it’s success, and I’m going to work diligently to get it back to the stability it once had.
• Although we are Blessed to have a very stable and wonderful home life, there’s always room for me to improve my contribution.  I’m going to continue to work to be a better husband and father, and set as positive an example for my boys as I can.
• 2010 was an amazing year for my personal growth in You Lord, and I want very much to expand on that in the coming year as well.  The closer I work to walk in Christ’s footsteps, the more I find the rest of my life gains meaning and direction.  I’m also dedicated to bringing Your Light into my children’s lives, and teaching them the Love and Guidance You provide us every day.

Heavenly Father, I humbly pray that over the coming year Your Amazing Gift of Grace is felt by all Your Children.  May we all experience the Joy in Serving Your Will, and walk the Path that Jesus has set for us in Your Holy Name.  Amen.

~Phather Phil