I took my pick-up to the Ford garage to get fixed, and the estimate was way too expensive, so I decided to fix it myself. Tonight, Patty said her car had a bunch of issues, so I guess I must also fix them. None of the things that need fixing are big deals: a leaky radiator hose, a frayed connection on a battery cable, a window that won’t go up after you put it down, and a gas cap that won’t stay closed. Fixing things is part of life. I also have a leaky faucet in our house, a light switch that isn’t working, and a couple of other things that Patty has on my honey-do list.

Fixing relationships is a much more serious issue. Fixing cars takes a bit of knowledge and skill; fixing relationships takes wisdom and persistence. I ignore many of the car things and house things because it isn’t that big of a deal, and the inconvenience is minor. But I don’t ignore the relationship things because God says in His Word not to. Sometimes, I don’t know what to do because the person ignores me or simply won’t have anything to do with me, and my efforts to fix things just don’t work. I pray for them and ask God to give me wisdom and an opportunity to fix the relationship. I have it down to only two people now, and I will keep praying and trying. The Bible says to work diligently to be at peace with all people. I will do that. I would rather fix Patty’s car.

Sherri is home and looking good. She will be on antibiotics for several weeks as she continues to heal up. She will rest a lot as everybody waits on her and takes care of her. It will probably be hard to keep her down and not run around doing things. It is nice to have her home and the trauma to be over; I have prayed a prayer of thankfulness a dozen times in the last hour.

In the last year, I have prayed for a dozen different people besides Sherri, who have been sick, and they all died. Did Sherri get healed because more people were praying for her, or did those praying for Sherri have more faith? I don’t think so. Many of the same people who prayed for Sherri also prayed for those who died. What if Sherri had died? What conclusions could we draw from that?
Ten years ago, Thomas, Sherri’s husband, had a farming accident, and his neck was broken, and he has been in a wheelchair since. Many people prayed fervently for his healing. I have prayed almost daily for the last ten years that God would supernaturally heal Thomas and he would walk again.
Are there any guaranteed prayers? Does our praying make any difference? Can we say that God listened to the prayers for Sherri but not those offered up for others?

There are prayers that we can pray that God always answers. God will give us a peace that is beyond understanding. A peace that is supernatural. A peace that gives us confidence and trust in God despite not understanding why. God gives us joy that overrides the pain of our trials. He gives us His supernatural strength to manage life, its pressures, and trials. He gives us wisdom to know what to do and how to respond to others amid confusion. He works in us, causing us to grow more and more into the character of Christ. He uses us to influence others so that their faith grows.

Sherri is probably coming home tomorrow. It looks like she is healing up from her battle with pneumonia and sepsis. It has only been a week since she went into emergency and was so sick that it looked like she could die. It seems like at least a month with all the emotions, tensions, worry, and fear, and then all the prayer times, late nights, and conversations about what the doctors were saying. It will be so nice when this is behind us, and Sherri is back to running the Children’s Ministry at JBC and also our home. It will be so comfortable when life is normal again. But what will be next? When Sherri was a baby and crawling, she crawled to the open basement door and proceeded to crawl down the steps, fell eight feet and landed on the back of her head on a cement floor. I remember that sound like a watermelon hitting the floor. She didn’t make a sound, just a limp body that I scooped up, and we drove to the hospital with. I knew she was dead, but she wasn’t. We had her in the emergency room at the hospital three or four more times before she was four years old, with severe reactions to food allergies and asthma coming very close on several occasions to her dying. When she was six, she fell eight feet down the stairwell of our house and landed on her face on the bottom step. Again, we drove her to the emergency, thinking she would probably die. I remember holding her in my arms with her face all back and swoll up in the waiting room and seeing a poster on the wall that had a picture of a little kid with a black and blue face with the caption, “Be Sure and Report Child Abuse.”

Life happens, and trials are as much a part of life as breathing. It isn’t a question of if; it is a question of when. Sometimes the story ends well, but sometimes it doesn’t. We will all die, sooner or later, some in their sleep at 100 years of age, others at 40 from cancer, and some at 18 in an automobile crash. We would like to choose how our life would go, like a meal on a menu at McDonald’s, but we can’t. But we can trust our heavenly Father to orchestrate our lives the way He wants and not tell Him what is best. He knows what is best and what our length of days are. Our responsibility is to grow to be like Jesus in character as fast and as much as possible in whatever time we have. Our responsibility is to bear as much fruit for Him as possible in the years we have.

I am almost 76 years old. I don’t know how many years or days I have left, but I am determined to live them well so that when I step into glory, I hear Jesus say, “Well done, good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of your heavenly Father.”

Our daughter Sherri is in the hospital with severe pneumonia and an assortment of other health issues that have her very, very sick. Patty has been staying with her for about 16 hours daily, and several of our other daughters are rotating with her. It sounds like they will draw some fluid that has built up around her lungs tomorrow. It is all serious and scary for our entire family and all of Sherri’s friends as well. There is a lot of prayer being lifted up for her. I have been thinking about several Bible passages about trials in our life. One of them is,
James 1:2-4 “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”

“Consider it all joy.” Does that mean you act like you just caught a huge salmon? Probably not. Does it mean to act happy? I don’t think so. The word ‘consider’ suggests that it is a thinking issue, not an emotional or behavioral issue. I believe it would include three different attitudes or ways of thinking. First, we don’t blame God or get upset that He let this happen or hasn’t healed her yet. Joy is a confident trust that God is always good, whether the result is what we want or not. Second, we are not consumed with the ‘why’ word. Again, that joy would be akin to trusting that God is good and loves us. His ways are often way over our heads; we are OK with that. Third, our way of thinking comes out in our conversations with each other, and our confidence and trust in God grows because of it. Our way of thinking also comes out in our conversations with those who have little hope and joy in their own trials because they have no relationship with God. Our attitude in our trials hugely influences their lives, causing their faith in God to grow, hopefully to the point of accepting Jesus as their Savior.

Sherri has been very influential in her Facebook entries with everyone who reads them. Even her pictures of herself with tubes coming out her nose, she has that cute little smile that communicates “joy.”

Our daughter Sherri has been in the hospital in ICU with double pneumonia and sepsis since Friday morning. She had been very sick, and we were all fearful that she was going to die. Lots of prayers from family and church have been lifted up for her. She took a turn for the better this afternoon, is now off oxygen, and ate her first food. During these last four days, I have prayed pretty much non-stop in my head. During this weekend’s activities with church services and preaching, it was hard not to get distracted by worry for her. I kept repeating Philippians 4:6-7 in my head, over and over,” Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” The instruction is not to be anxious but to pray until you have peace. To not be anxious is a tough assignment at times like this, but that is what it says, so I trusted and prayed. I prayed at one point last night when I woke up, “Lord, I desire that You heal Sherri, but I don’t know what Your will is. We just had a family member who was 41 and a young guy in our church who was the same age also die. They were both married with kids. We prayed for their healing, but that obviously wasn’t Your will. Lord, I trust You totally that what You choose to do with Sherti is the best possible thing that could happen, even if it isn’t what I want.” When I prayed, I felt great peace and went to sleep. I am very thankful that she is much better this evening.

Proverbs 8:10-11 Take my instruction and not silver, And knowledge rather than choicest gold. For wisdom is better than jewels; And all desirable things cannot compare with her.

Proverbs 8:17 I love those who love me; and those who diligently seek me will find me.

Wisdom is knowing what to say and do in any situation. People should get wiser as they get older, but most don’t. The reason is that it takes humility to get wiser and most do not have the humility required to be a seeker of wisdom. The proverb says, “Those who diligently seek me will find me.” only the humble will do that. Solomon said that he found only one man in a thousand had wisdom. I wonder if it is any different today. We get to the point of having adequate wisdom early and quickly; that is enough wisdom to survive in our world, function, and get by. Once we get to that point, we quit seeking and pursuing, asking questions and getting counsel, quit reading good books, and are satisfied with just surviving. Those who are lifelong learners and wisdom seekers commit to being a seeker and are unsatisfied with being average. They read books, listen to podcasts, and take classes. They are constantly seeking advice from people around them. They are not content, and they always want more.

One of my Axioms for Life is a verse from the book of Proverbs.

Proverbs 14:23, “In all labor there is profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty.” I have made diligence and hard work a crucial part of my life and ministry. My parents raised me on the farm with a strong work ethic. I believe that God blesses the character trait of diligence, but I also enjoy working and getting as much done as possible in a given amount of time. My Dad used to say, “The one who works the hardest will get the most done, and the one who gets the most done will succeed in life the most, everything else being equal.” When I left the farm to be a pastor, my Dad said, “Every pastor I know is fat and plays golf all the time.” That is why I didn’t take up golf until after my Dad died. I wanted to prove him wrong on one of those points! Everyone is born lazy and hopefully develops the character trait of diligence in their growing-up years, or learns it as an adult, or remains lazy. The problem of laziness has increased markedly in our country in the last few years. The stories I hear from business owners and supervisors about employees would be funny if not so sad. The natural inclination to laziness remains in our flesh and pops up periodically. My natural tendency to be lazy has increased as I have gotten older and have less physical energy. I have had to consciously increase my non-physical work as my physical work has decreased. My thinking, writing, and speaking abilities have increased, so I continually seek opportunities to serve the Lord using those tools. The key thing for me is to rest systematically, not based on being tired because I am always tired now, but it is a physical energy tiredness, and I can sit, read, write, and physically rest at the same time and feel as good as if I took a nap. Another important discipline for me is not watching television too much, playing video games, or simply sitting and daydreaming. Those time-wasters are easy to justify as I get older, and they are enjoyable but addicting. My primary motivation is the “Judgment Seat of Christ,” where I will be rewarded for my work for the Lord. I think about and imagine about that event every day, and as a result, I am motivated to press on in life and run the race with endurance that the Lord has set before me. Read 1 Corinthians 3:10-15, and you will see that the word work is used five times. My work for God is important, and He will reward me for it both in this life and in eternity.

In yesterday’s blog, I said I have a dozen axioms, basic rules for living. But actually, I have 102 axioms that I have collected over the years. A bunch of them are leadership axioms, that I use as a pastor leading a church, some are financial, some parenting that I don’t use much anymore except when I teach a parenting seminar, and some for my health. I have an even dozen that are my daily walk with God, live with Patty, and everybody else axioms. I started this collection of short guidelines for living when I read a book entitled, “Axioms” by Bill Hybels years ago.

Another one of my twelve is, “Don’t be a grumpy old man!” Some corollaries to this one are, “Rejoice always,” “Talk nice, always,” “Honor everybody all of the time,” “Smile, you have nice teeth,” and “Make people sad when you leave the room, not when you enter.” This is a very important axiom I often mentally remind myself of when a trial happens. Anybody can be pleasant when everything is going well, but only a champion can do it during a crisis. How do you do? Make it a choice you make, not an emotional reaction.

Over the years, I have heard and learned about a dozen truths that I have called the axioms of my life. An axiom is a fundamental truth that many other truths can be built on; they are the foundation. I refined them so that I could state them in one sentence, easily remember them, and repeat them often. Those one-dozen truths are the foundation of my life. They shape and influence everything I have done and continue to do. The cool thing about having a few, very short guiding principles is that they easily pop into my mind at just the right moment to prompt and guide my words and decisions.

One of them is “eat dirt.” That is based on the words of Jesus when He said, “If you humble yourself, I will exalt you, but if you exalt yourself, I will humble you.” I get the chance to practice this principle almost every time I have a discussion with another person, which turns into an argument. I remind myself that I may win the argument but lose a blessing from the Lord. That really isn’t winning much.

Another one is, “I don’t have to act the way I feel.” Our emotions immediately follow an event or words from another person, and often, we feel hurt, offended, or strongly disagree. Speaking or acting according to those emotions can be foolish and damaging to relationships and our ministry. Children act the way they feel because they have little self-control, but I will do and say what is responsible, wise, and right. I can do that, and I will.

Another very simple axiom that I repeat often to others and myself is, “Read the Bible everyday, everyday, everyday.” That simple little phrase has made a huge difference in my life. So many times, I have been tired and tempted to skip my Bible reading for just one day, and that phrase pops into my head, followed by a second one, “ You don’t have to act the way you feel.” It is hard to skip after that.

I will give you some more tomorrow.

There are five people in my family, my siblings. All five of us, with our spouses, got together today for lunch and had a wonderful time. We talked about our kids and grandkids, and I got lost in the conversation—too many names to keep track of. The five of us have 24 kids, and they are all married, with 92 grandkids and four great-grandkids. That is a total of 149 names. That is a lot of people for an old guy like me to remember. Anyway, the ladies had a good time talking about kids and grandkids, and we guys talked about an assortment of other things.

In the Bible, several chapters are just genealogies: Adam begot Seth, Seth begot Enosh, and so on. It is boring reading unless you are studying about a person and his family. When they were young, one of our kids was reading through one of the sets of genealogies, and they asked me why God put all those names in the Bible. I wasn’t sure what to answer, so I said, “Because families are important to God.”

Years ago, Edith Schaeffer wrote a classic book called “The Family.” she talked about the power of a close family to positively shape each life and the destructive power of a dysfunctional family to mess up a person’s life. Tonight, as I sat reviewing the day, I thanked the Lord for the great family I grew up in and how important those years were in making me who I am today.

God brings many people out of dysfunctional families, makes great servants of God out of them, and does amazing things through them, but they are the minority. Most of the champions of God were shaped by the love, unity, and health of a godly family.

All that is to say, be a positive force in your family, immediate and extended. Families are the environment that God uses to raise up His champions.