Angels in Waiting

Dear Lord; Happy Wednesday Father!

This evening Lord, my heart is heavy.

As we’ve discussed a number of times before, a huge Blessing in Jonathan’s life over the last couple years has been his involvement with Kay’s Kamp.  It’s a wonderful organization, and it’s meant so much to Jonathan to have that connection with children who share and understand his medical situation.  The bonds he’s formed with that group have been amazing, and we’re very thankful to be part of their “family”.

Over the rest of the year when Kamp isn’t in session, the Kay’s Kamp staff is wonderful about keeping everyone in contact with each other, and in passing along any important events that may occur so that everyone can come together when needed.  Today, I heard from them… and it wasn’t happy news.

One of the Kampers’ medical condition has deteriorated, and he and his mother are in need of Your Comfort Father.

Whenever we come up against news like this, it hits us extremely hard Lord.  We’ve worn those shoes, and I believe it’s one of the most difficult things that anyone can deal with in this lifetime.  When I received the email, past realities flooded back to me and my heart caved knowing what they must be feeling.  Although we’ve been truly Blessed that Jonathan’s disease has stayed in remission so far, the fact it still lives in him becomes much more real when we see others in that situation suffering.  I realize we don’t have the “Big Picture” Father, and that You’re still in control even in cases like this, but those answers can seem very distant when our spirit cries for those in pain.

Heavenly Father, please bring Your Divine Healing to this little one and his mother.  Let them know Your Love and Comfort, and the Eternal Hope that Christ brought to us all.  Your Light is strong in these families Lord, and I pray that they see it and feel Your Peace in this time of turmoil and darkness.  Amen.

~Phather Phil

P.S. For further information on this remarkable little boy and his struggle, they have a web page at: http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/dorianh .  Please pray for them.

Happy 200th Father!

Dear Lord; Happy Monday Father!

Today Father, I received a wonderful surprise when I logged into the statistics page for PhatherPhil.org.  Yesterday’s Easter Day Post “Christ is Risen!” was my 200^th article, with a total of 1,200 comments to date and as of this moment, 12,105 site visits since I began writing it last year.  It’s been a wonderful journey Lord, and I feel truly Blessed to have had this level of interest in and response to our daily conversations.  Through this ministry I’ve grown steadily in my Walk with You, found fellowship with  some absolutely wonderful people, and hopefully passed on Your Messages in ways that have proved valuable to others.  Either way, I want to thank You for our daily “chats”, and very much look forward to the next 200.  🙂

Easter weekend was wonderful as well Father.  From the small gathering of people we had over for the kickoff of our Spring and Summer “Dinner and Drinks on the Deck” Friday evenings, to celebrating the Glory of Christ’s Resurrection with friends and family Saturday and Sunday, it was a Blessed time and Your Presence was felt in abundance.

As the weather abated, I also was able to spend some time enjoying one of my hobbies; photography.  And while these shots are certainly not representative of my best work from an artistic perspective, they made me smile so I thought I’d share them all the same:

Jonathan was in rare form at “Uncle” Steve and “Aunt” Kay’s house on Saturday.  While not blood-related, we consider them family in the truest sense of the word, and the boys love them to no end.  In this shot he was out in the yard, playing with their dog and having a wonderful time doing so.

While the children ran around and blew off a little excess sugar energy, Shannon got the opportunity to relax a bit and work on a crocheting project.

While I don’t remember the conversation he was having when I shot this, I loved the light and shadows and the expression on Aidan’s face.

All in all Lord, it was a peaceful, inspired and Blessed Easter Weekend and I thank You for those Gifts.  The Glory of what this wondrous event signifies was on my heart throughout, and as You know I spent a great deal of time in contemplation of your Love for us all.

Heavenly Father, thank You so much for our daily conversations; they truly Bless me well beyond written words on a page.  I pray that our relationship continues to deepen, and that through what we’ve begun I’m able to continue to use this site to serve Your Will, and reach out to those in need.  Amen.

~Phather Phil

Christ is Risen!

Dear Lord; Good morning Father, and Happy Easter!

My heart is light today Father; filled with the power of what this day of celebration represents!

Following a dreary, rainy Good Friday (which seemed somewhat appropriate weather to me), the weather broke late yesterday; almost as if the light were yearning for the coming dawn.  Today I awoke to a beautiful sunlit morning, as if the world itself is rejoicing on this Day of Resurrection!

Brought up in a Lutheran Church, I’ve been hearing the following phrase whispered through my heart quite a bit the last few days:

Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again!

Such a simple, yet in my opinion powerful statement of Faith this is Lord.  We can never hope in this life to comprehend the magnitude of the Gifts Christ brought to us, but my heart stretches and my spirit grows each time I contemplate these wondrous events.

This morning Father, I read the story of Jesus’ Resurrection from the Gospel of Matthew to Jonathan and Aidan.  Over the last week, I’ve been talking with them about the significance and importance of what this celebration represents, and although they’re still young in their walk with You, I see Your Light in their eyes more and more each day.  Please continue to bring Your Love and Guidance to their hearts, that they may grow in Your Kingdom and more fully appreciate the Blessings You bring to us all.

“After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb.

There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it.  His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow.  The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men.

The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified.  He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay.  Then go quickly and tell his disciples: ‘He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.’ Now I have told you.”” – Matthew 28:1-7 (NIV)

Heavenly Father, we rejoice at the wonder of Christ’s Resurrection on this sunny Easter Morning, and for the Salvation and Hope that act of Love signifies.  I pray that our hearts will all be filled with Your Glory, and for Your Will to guide us along the path Jesus laid for us.

Christ is Risen!

Amen.

~Phather Phil

Stretching Our Spirits

Dear Lord; Good evening Father!

You know Father, throughout the years I’ve been in business I’ve had an amazingly diverse group of clients.  In most cases, we have an excellent rapport with our customers; they know we’ll do what’s necessary to satisfy their IT needs, and that even when things don’t go exactly as planned we’re in their corner and will make sure things are taken care of.  We work diligently on their behalf, and the great majority of them appreciate what we do for them.

And then there are those clients…

I’ve decided Lord, that there are some folks that no matter what you do, you simply can’t please.  Being that I pride myself on solving problems for people and maintaining an upbeat, moral and ethical relationship with them, that tiny contingent of customers causes me the bulk of my upset.  Driving back from a job site this afternoon, I was playing back an interaction with one of those clients in my head, getting more and more frustrated that our efforts kept getting twisted and maligned and that no matter what we did for them, it was never enough, or appreciated.

“Pray for them.” I heard drift across my thoughts…

Ouch… You certainly know how to make me stop and think Father.  In focusing on my frustrations, I allowed myself to forget Your teachings:

“But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.” – Matthew 5:44-45 (NIV)

I’ve come to the conclusion Lord, that one of Your intentions for prayer is to allow You to “stretch” our spirits in directions our earthly selves would likely not have taken.  I think it’s quite probable that those people I was allowing to poison my spirit desperately need Your Presence, and therefore deserve my prayers.

Thank You for the reminder and the lesson Father.  I’ll be working on this more diligently going forward.

Amen.

~Phather Phil

Another “Geek Views on God” Moment

Dear Lord; Good evening Father!

Well Lord, today I had another one of those “geek views on God” moments.

We were installing a new server at a client’s site today, and were having some problems joining a couple workstation PCs to the freshly created domain (I know, I know… geeky stuff.  I’ll keep this part brief).  It’s a reasonably new client and site for us, so after some tests and investigation we realized that there was another legacy machine on the network that was improperly trying to “run the show” and causing conflicts with the new system.  In effect, the new computers were trying to obey orders from more than one “boss”, which in effect rendered them non-functional.

Hmmm… Kind of like trying to follow our earthly wants and You at the same time…

The situation today reminded me of an excellent point I’ve seen on several other blogs recently; We have one Boss, one Father, one “Domain Controller” that we need to take our direction from.  If we allow ourselves to heed the calls of other earthly “masters” instead, we become spiritually non-functional.

“Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.”” – Matthew 16:24 (NIV)

I love seeing Your Lessons in my life each day Father.  🙂

Amen.

~Phather Phil