As You’re aware Father, I’ve struggled with high blood pressure for quite some years now. It’s one of the few true health issues I’ve had, but has always been reasonably well controlled through medication. Therefore, other than the ritual of taking my pill each day I’ve for the most part been able to forget that the problem exists.
Until a month ago.
Due to a series of unfortunate circumstances, Shannon and I lost our health care insurance effective the beginning of April. We’ve been researching a number of options to correct it, but so far none have been found that fits our needs or our budget. Thankfully, Shannon’s medications are all generics and therefore reasonable to purchase without the insurance, however my blood pressure prescription is not which makes it a bit expensive. On top of that, our Primary Care Physician closed his practice at the end of February, so my options for looking into alternate medications are extremely limited. Weighing all these items in my head, I therefore made a decision to try and go without the blood pressure pills for a while, and see how I made out.
This was not one of my better ideas Father.
Over the course of the next couple weeks, my BP slowly began to rise and I started reverting to the pre-medication days where ringing in my ears, headaches and uncomfortable chest pains were the norm. I of course prayed for relief Lord, oh I prayed, but the symptoms continued to get worse.
Then I realized Father, You’d already given me relief, I’d just decided to stop taking advantage of it.
Your solution for me hadn’t changed Father, I was simply trying to second guess You by looking for an “easier” option. Just because the remedy was a more difficult path than it used to be didn’t mean it still wasn’t the proper choice. As the Apostle Paul reminded us in First Corinthians:
“Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.” – 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 (NIV)
Needless to say, I went and bought the medication and started taking it last Saturday. It’ll take a week or so to level me out again, but I’ve already started feeling somewhat better.
Heavenly Father, please help me keep focused on Your Blessings and true plan for me each day. Guide my decisions to honor Your Will, and direct my gaze to not seek answers outside Your Wishes. Amen.
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.
First off Lord, I want to thank You for a lovely weekend. Jonathan was feeling a bit better, so we were able to get out to visit with some good friends Saturday night and then spent Sunday afternoon and evening with my father (the earthly one… 🙂 ) and his wife. The children love visiting with their grandparents, and it was wonderful to be able to get out and spend time with them. All in all, a very restful and enjoyable couple of days and I thank You for that time of respite.
This evening Father, I’d like to discuss something that’s been on my heart quite a bit as of late.
A couple months ago, I was contacted via email by a lady I hadn’t met before about possibly presiding over her upcoming wedding. She was a friend of a very good friend of mine, so I asked some questions to make sure it was feasible for me to do so. The date seemed fine, but she really didn’t have much of an idea of what kind of wedding ceremony she was interested in. I pointed her to some online resources with sample ceremonies and told her to look through them to get some ideas about what fit her and her fiancée’s wishes. Last week, I finally got around to reading my emails on that account and found that she’d sent me what she deemed the “perfect” script for her special day.
There was absolutely no reference to You in any way, shape or form.
The ceremony she’d chosen was a completely secular proceeding, save for an “optional” prayer at the end. Now Father, it was a lovely, very sentimental and poetic script to be sure, but in my mind it completely misses the point; marriage is of Your Design for us:
“But at the beginning of creation God ‘made them male and female’. For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife,and the two will become one flesh. So they are no longer two, but one flesh.Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.” – Mark 10:6-9 (NIV)
I sent the bride-to-be a politely worded response that although it was a lovely secular ceremony, it was my responsibility as a Christian Minister to bring Your Presence to the proceedings, and that I wasn’t able to represent Your intentions for the Holy Bond of marriage properly with that script. I hold marriage to be one of Your most personal and intimate Gifts to us, and I feel it’s very important to honor that Blessing appropriately during the formation of that union.
Needless to say, I haven’t heard back from her as of yet.
But this got me to thinking Father… Aren’t we doing the same thing in many other ways as well in society today?
We’ve removed open prayer in schools and many other public places as to not “offend” anyone.
Television commercials are being banned from airing during certain popular television programs to avoid giving a “platform” to any religious groups.
The Pledge of Allegiance has been under attack because the words “under God” upset some people.
It’s disturbing to say the least Father, and I’m seeing more and more signs of it each day. In an effort to not be “confrontational”, we as Christians in many cases “drop the ball” when reflecting Your Light and passing along Your Message of Love and Hope to others around us.
Heavenly Father, You’ve Blessed us all with remarkable gifts. Please help strengthen and embolden us to carry the lantern of Your Light proudly in front of us so that everyone may see Your Wonders and feel Your Presence. In God we Trust. Amen.
Wow Father, what a long and tiring day this was. I started the day at a client’s site at 7:45 this morning, and finally drove into my driveway at 8:45 tonight. I’m wiped.
Heading home this evening, I was driving along some back roads while Andrew Peterson’s “Counting Stars” CD massaged my mental temperament following the day’s toils. It was a dark and clear evening, and the stars seemed especially bright away from the street lights and incursions of blatant civilization. My mind drifted a bit, and I found myself pondering how much I actually enjoy driving at night; soaking in the Stillness and clarity of the draped surroundings.
And then track 9 started up…
It always fascinates me Father, how You manage to guide my thoughts and link them up with external reinforcements to get my attention. In this case, it came in the form of a song on the CD called “In the Night My Hope Lives On”. From my own thoughts of how in the Stillness of night I find comfort in Your Presence, this ballad reached in and awoke my spirit. What an amazingly powerful song this is Lord:
The lyrics are truly wonderful Father… such a potent description of the Hope we find in Your Love for us.
“I can see the crowd of men retreating
As he stands between the woman and their stones
And if mercy in his holy heart is beating
Then in the night my hope lives on
I remember how they scorned the son of Mary
He was gentle as a lamb, gentle as a lamb
He was beaten, he was crucified, and buried
And in the night, my hope was gone
But the rulers of the earth could not control Him
They did not take his life–he laid it down
All the chains of death could never hope to hold him
So in the night my hope lives on”
What a perfect way to end my day Lord; focusing on the Hope You so freely gifted us with. And in the night, my hope lives on.
Well Father, it was certainly a hectic weekend here! Friday night we decided to be a little lazy, ordered a pizza and then watched the new Narnia movie together (I love family movie night!). Saturday however, was nothing resembling quiet and restful. Shannon and Aidan headed off to an ice skating production themed around Peter Pan’s Neverland adventures, and Jonathan and I hit the road to Williamsport, Maryland for his first concert…
And what an experience it was Father.
Jonathan’s favorite group for quite some time now has been the Newsboys. Well, when I learned that they were starting a new tour and the first stop was within driving distance (a long drive mind you), I snapped up the opportunity to get tickets to the event. As this was also to be his first concert, I opted for the VIP Passes as well to give him a more personal experience.
He was so excited Father… He anxiously counted down the days, waiting for it to come.
The day of the concert finally rolled around so we loaded up the Yukon with everything we might need (travelling music cds, camera, junk food, etc.) and headed out. It was a three hour drive, about 167 miles each way but the time seemed to pass quickly. We arrived nicely ahead of time, and after a short wait in the line for the VIP Entrance we were taken inside, given our gift bags containing a CD and poster, and brought upstairs to the pre-show “meet the band” area.
After another short wait, the Newsboys came out to greet the group. They started by answering a few questions from the crowd, and telling us about themselves a little more. During this Q&A session, a comment made by another of the attendees really caught me, and has stuck in my head. It was from a gentleman there with his two teenage sons, and he said to the band (paraphrasing):
“First off guys, I just want to thank you for what you’re doing. I’m raising boys and it’s tough today, but with the great music and even better message you’re putting out, it really helps.”
Amen Sir. Well stated.
Anyways, following the questions from the audience they played a quick acoustic version of “In the Light” for us. It was wonderful in that intimate setting, and Jonathan loved every minute of it. We then were awarded the chance to meet them personally, and to get a signature or two. Jonathan got his poster signed by each band member, and I even managed to get a picture of him with Michael Tait and Jeff Frankenstein. Jonathan was glowing… It was so wonderful to see him that excited Father.
We then headed over to the concert hall, where they had a set of reserved seating put aside for us. When everyone was in and seated, the concert opened up with a couple numbers performed by Carlos Whittaker. He did a great job of getting the crowd “juiced up” and had everyone on their feet singing Your Praises in no time.
Now Lord, this is the first worship concert I’d been to so I think I was probably as excited as Jonathan was. There’s something about the positive energy of 2000 God-Loving Believers on their feet, hands raised to Heaven singing to Your Glory together… The Holy Spirit was in abundance in that room for sure Father!
Carlos was followed up by performances by Disciple, and then Kutless; both of which were absolutely excellent and revved the “congregation” up even further. Although the volume was a lot louder than Jonathan had expected, as soon as they started playing songs he knew, he was on his feet as well singing right along… I was so proud of him Lord. 🙂
Following Kutless they had a short intermission while the stage was set up for the Newsboys to play, and a speaker who talked about Compassion Ministries and the impoverished children they represent.
Then the Newsboys took the stage.
They put on an amazing show Father… So much energy… So much spirit… So much praising Your Glory!
The best moment for me came when they played Jonathan’s favorite Newsboys song; “He Reigns”. Everyone was on their feet, swaying back and forth with hands raised towards Heaven singing at the top of their lungs…
And yet, in the midst of all the glorious sounds echoing through the hall all I could hear was the 11-year-old boy next to me with a huge smile on his face and hands in the air, joyously singing Your Praises.
It was a truly wondrous evening Lord. 🙂
Heavenly Father, thank You so much for Blessing me with these moments. Seeing my boys finding joy, excitement and wonder in You does wonderful things for my heart. Please keep them in Your Embrace, and fill them with Your Holy Spirit so they can grow into the men You Desire them to be. Amen.
Hi, I’m Phil Malmstrom, a.k.a. Phather Phil. I’m self-employed, father of two wonderful young men, an ordained minister who delights in spreading Jesus’ Message of Hope and Love, a science-fiction junkie, an aspiring photographer and above all that one of God’s Children who rejoices in His Blessings each day.
Hi, I’m Phil Malmstrom, a.k.a. Phather Phil. I’m self-employed, father of two wonderful young men, an ordained minister who delights in spreading Jesus’ Message of Hope and Love, a science-fiction junkie, an aspiring photographer and above all that one of God’s Children who rejoices in His Blessings each day. 
