Beyond our wildest dreams

Turkey with all the fixins

“God can do anything, you know—far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams! He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, his Spirit deeply and gently within us.

Glory to God in the church!
Glory to God in the Messiah, in Jesus!
Glory down all the generations!
Glory through all millennia! Oh, yes!” Ephesians 3:20-21, The Message

On the eve of Thanksgiving, I'm thinking once again of Refuge's annual Thanksgiving service, that I refer to as “Thanks-Bringing”, that was held a few weeks ago. I think it's one of my favorite services of the year. We arrange the chairs in a circle, we sing a song or two to settle us in but then the bringing of thanks officially commences. Our faith-stories become the order of the day.

Troy surrounded by his family

We may be what others refer to as a Pentecostal fellowship, but there's a lot of Lutheran in us. Usually when I open up the floor for sharing, we sit in Quaker silence until someone breaks. But not this year. This year, Troy got the ball rolling. I've written a lot about Troy in the last year – on his coming to Christ, on his being sober (for the first time in his life) at Christmas, of joining me in my monthly foray to the Justice Center. Troy stood up and gave thanks for the two families that God had given him – his own and the one he embraced and was, at the same time, adopted by – The Refuge. When Troy began coming to our fellowship he came alone. But these days on many Sundays he is joined by his wife, his son, one or both of his step daughters and a couple of his grandchildren. “This is like a great family reunion for me today.” For the most part, spiritually speaking his family is not on the same page with him – yet. But they follow him here clearly convinced that what is going on in him is far greater than some passing fad.

Josh stood up that day to share as well. Josh is a young man who grew up in our fellowship. His folks split up when he was just a kid but it's only recently that healing from that trauma is beginning to happen. He wanted to thank God for the freedom he was finding from the hurt from the past. Truly, “He makes all things new.” A little bit later he asked to share again. He wanted to publicly apologize to his step-mom, Tina, for how he had treated her when his dad and her had married ten years or so ago. He also wanted to publicly acknowledge how grateful he is to have a stepmother like her who loves him and is a source of spiritual counsel to him. It's difficult to put into words what happened next but I bet most folks can imagine.

Ben's world has been turned upside-down

Ben, a mason by trade with the build of a guy who lifts heavy bricks each day, tearfully stood to his feet and managed, through a rush of tears, to give thanks to God for being born again. A few months ago, at the invitation of a friend, he had attended a gathering at our local YWAM campus that featured John Peterson, the U.S. Gold medalist in wrestling in the 1972 Olympics (he actually does not live too far from here.) What John shared with Ben got him thinking and a week or so later he and his wife showed up at our weekly worship gathering. We met late one Tuesday night I assumed to respond to questions he had. But the long and short of it was that he wanted to give his life to Christ. What else could I do but pray with him to do just that? He and his wife, Tina, have been a part of us ever since. One of our deacons, Dennis, has wood-cutting ministry by which he organizes a lot of the guys from here to cut wood for those in need of it. Dennis invited Ben and after working the guys all day one of them quipped to me, “I don't know what game we're playing but we want Ben on our team.” Right now, the work of Jesus in Ben's heart pretty much makes him cry at the drop of a hat. He walks into the sanctuary and he can't turn off the tears whether he makes his way to the altar or not. But I take that as God's Spirit “pickling” him, removing years of callouses that had gripped his heart in hatred and anger. His story is still in the making.

For her part, his wife shared with me a few weeks ago that when Ben first told her that he was born again, quietly she just assumed that this was just another phase that he would pass through and move on. But she's living with a different man, now, she told me and frankly she realized that though she had been raised in an evangelical tradition had walked away from God a long time ago. While not as emotional as her husband, she, too, is turning to the Lord who loves her. When she finally got to her feet to share she first asked for the kleenix box that kept making the rounds of the sanctuary as one after another stood to give thanks for God's goodness in their life.

"...perplexed but not in despair..."

Kari, whose husband Steve was in a horrible motorcycle accident back in May, stood up as well and for the next fifteen minutes regaled us with story after story of God's faithfulness to her, her husband and her children. While Steve remains hospitalized in a facility that specializes in head trauma, she has evidence and then some that God is at work and has taken care of her family. Steve was an independent landscaper, the sole income for their household and yet, because of God's faithfulness and the generosity of God's people, at this point all their obligations are met, the family is reasonably healthy and Steve is improving (in fact, a friend of hers who just returned from seeing Steve and Kari reported that Steve had shared that, in his opinion, the accident “had to happen...otherwise I would not know God like I do now”.) In my estimate, that testimony is worth the price of admission to this season of their lives.

Choosing to trust

There were other stories we heard that day. Dolores, an Ojibwa woman who lives on the Lac Coutre Oreilles Reservation a little over an hour from here and is a member of the ministry we've supported since they began back in the early 90s, was with us despite the difficulty of being so. Her cousin had died the night before, choking, she said, on his own vomit. But then in her quiet way she said, “I was thinking of staying home but then I made a choice to be with you all as a way of saying I put my trust in the Lord.” LeAnne, who had lost her own brother a year ago in a tragic swimming accident out on the Chippewa River, stood to share how God had taken her through a vale of tears but that she could rightfully say that He had sustained her and now she was on the other side of it (in a very touching moment she went and knelt before Dolores and prayed for her.)

“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28, NIV). Again and again, through every story, we heard this same refrain – God is working something of eternal value out of the messes of our lives. When we had run out of things to say, we shared communion as families together, fathers or heads of families coming to the center table and grabbing some bread as well as some cups with grape juice and then praying and sharing together. It is fitting to do just this in communion (as in the faith stories we had all just heard) we are reminded that Christ's brokenness results in our wholeness and his death results not just in life but life to the uttermost. 

 

 After this part of our worship gathering is completed, everyone but designated volunteers are asked to step out of the sanctuary while food that has been cooking downstairs is brought up and tables are set up for all of us to sit around and partake of turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, squash, stuffing, the whole 9 yards. It's like Moses and the elders sitting down to a sumptuous banquet on the mountain in the presence of the Lord (see Exodus 24). On the mount, Moses and his associates saw God. But in my opinion on this day we, too, have seen the Lord and experienced a shadow of his glory in the words of those who have shared their story with us. It provokes new wonder in my heart for the One who is able to do “exceeding, abundantly above all that we ask or think” (Eph 3:20, KJV).