The Now and the Know

Introduction

On September 9, 2007 you could hear a pin drop in Ralph Wilson Stadium. The assembled fans of the Buffalo Bills waited anxiously as TE Kevin Everett lay motionless on the turf, hoping for some sign, any sign, that he was okay. A thumbs up. A wave. Even a twitch of the hand. But no such sign ever came and eventually Everett was carted off the field. The prognosis was not good. In a Sept. 11, 2007 article filed to ESPN.com, Dr. Andrew Cappuccino, the orthopedic surgeon who repaired a break between Everett’s third and fourth vertebrae, said, “A best-case scenario is full recovery, but not likely. I believe there will be some permanent neurologic deficit.” Bottom line: Kevin Everett would be confined to a wheel-chair for the rest of his life and would forever be at great risk of blood clots and infections.

But on Sunday, December 23, 2007, Everett shocked and delighted fans when he walked into Ralph Wilson Stadium for the first time since his injury. It is true, his recovery was nothing short miraculous. In the initial months following the recovery, many articles and media outlets were quick to credit what is now being called “Theraputic Hypothermia” as playing a key role. The experimental protocol that involves lowering the body’s core temperature was initiated by doctors and paramedics in the crucial time immediately following Everett’s injury while en route to the hospital. Before and since that fateful day in September 2007, the scope of Therapeutic Hyperthermia (TH) has broadened greatly. In light of the recent conversation surrounding traumatic brain injuries in football, EMS personnel should pay close attention to TH Protocols, as their affect may not be limited to sports medicine.

Background

The goal of Therapeutic Hypothermia (TH) is the lowering of the core body temperature to anywhere from 32-34 degrees celsius (approx. 90F). This is accomplished in a number of ways. A standard practice in the treatment of traumatic injuries is the establishment of large bore (big!) IVs to administer fluid. The fluid of choice is ‘normal saline’, which is an isotonic solution which, in layman’s terms, means it is the “consistency” as blood. Often these bags of saline are kept on warmers to increase the temperature to that of the human body. What Dr. Cappuccino did was essentially the exact opposite of what I’ve just described: he infused normal saline that had been cooled. This coupled with decreasing the ambient temperature inside the ambulance itself began the TH treatment. Most TH Protocols have active cooling continue for 24 hours, with achievement of goal body temperature usually occuring at the 3-4 hour mark.

But what good does this do? It’s really pretty simple. Think about an injury to an extremity, an ankle for example. If Jon sprains his ankle playing basketball, what happens within minutes? The anke swells to 2-3 tiems its original size. This is Jon’s body going into Protection Mode, sending signals to that area that cause vasodilation (widening) allowing fluid to rush in and ‘protect’ the injury area. Here’s the problem: too much of a good thing. While swelling isn’t necessarily bad and is, in fact, a natural reaction of the body to tissue damage, too much of it can actually delay the body’s healing processes. Healthcare providers will be familiar with the RICE mneumonic: Rest Ice Compression Elevation for the treatment of isolated swelling. Keeping the swelling down will allow the body to heal more quickly.

Ice cools the body and, in essence, slows everything down. As previously stated, the swelling is a natural response of the body. However, cooling (ice) can slow down metabolism at the injury site and thus allow healing to take place.

Therapeutic Hypothermia

Now consider the above principles in a spinal cord injury, such as the one sustained by Kevin Everett. The body will react in the same way to Everett’s injury as it did to Jon’s metaphorical anke sprain: swelling. The key difference here is that swelling at the site of injury means swelling of the spinal cord, brainstem, and even increasing intra-cranial pressure (ICP), all of which can cause significant long term neurologic damage. The increased pressure reduces the flow of oxygen, causing ischemia and eventually cell death. However, cases such as Everett’s are evidence that rapid induction of TH may play a role in a more favorable outcome for the patient. The action is the same as icing a sprain. The lower temperature slows metabolic processes throughout the body in this case, including the site of the injury. A delay in swelling means the damaged tissue gets more oxygen for a longer period of time as well as reduced pressure on the brain and spinal cord. 

The benefits of TH are not limited to traumatic injuries, however. Studies and clinical trials have begun to show evidence that TH may have a huge affect on preservation of neurologic function following cardiac arrest. A February 2002 article in the New England Journal of Medicine reported that in 137 patients in which TH was used following cardiac, 75 (55%) had a favorable neurologic outcome at the 6 month mark, as opposed to 39% in the non-TH patients. The rate of death at six months, as reflected by the study data, was 16% lower in TH patients.

Favorable outcomes are being reported in studies around the country. Recently, Providence Tarzana Medical Center instituted an experimental cooling protocol and liked what they saw:

“With the institution of the protocol, in the first week-and-a-half, we’ve had three patients     who have had complete recovery of neurologic function after prolonged cardiac arrest,” said G. Scott Brewster, M.D., medical director of the Emergency Department at Providence Tarzana…“We’ve done cooling measures for quite a long time, but there’s never been a concerted effort to go hospital-wide with the process so that anyone who has a cardiac arrest in the local community or arrests in the hospital has the ability to benefit from the protocol,” Dr. Brewster said. 

 The chart (above left) included in the article from Tarzana explains three big differences between warm and cool reactions within the body.

Nothing is Certain

Despite the countless studies that seem to favor HT, no one should rush out to have it put their advanced directive just yet. In a Sept. 2007 New York Times article, Dr. Robert Cantu said of the Kevin Everett case:

“It does seem to have some benefit,” said Dr. Robert Cantu, co-director of the Neurologic Sports Injury Center at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. “Whether it’s responsible exclusively for the return or the recovery in this particular case, it’s a little hard to say. It may have happened anyway. But nobody could say it didn’t contribute to this quite remarkable turnaround.”

The list of skeptics includes Dr. Kevin J. Gibbons, Director of Neurosurgical ICU at Millard Fillmore Gates Circle Hospital in Buffalo. Gibbons, who was one of the doctors that operated on Everett, had this to say in a 2008 article filed by Revolution Health.com:

It’s important to realize that this is one individual and that further study of this practice is needed before making any conclusions. Some press reports portrayed Kevin’s treatment as having a “eureka” moment — he was paralyzed, then cooled, then moving — which really was not true. There were a few different phases to the use of induced hypothermia in Kevin’s care. His body temperature was warmer than most people who arrive with severe spine injuries, even though he’d received an injection of cooled saline in the ambulance when leaving the stadium. That injection did not bring his body temperature down much.
He was cooled during surgery, and that’s fairly routine. Then he was cooled again several hours post-op, and that brought his body temperature down significantly. But it’s important to note that he was recovering motor function before that last cooling treatment was employed and before the catheter was placed.
Here are the key factors, in my opinion, in why Kevin Everett was able to make the initial recovery:

1. His injury was not a transection — that is, the spinal cord was not severed, and it was not crushed. When it is, as unfortunately happens in many of these types of injuries, people do not recover.

2. He received prompt surgical decompression of the spine and got excellent pre-hospital care from the Buffalo Bills’ staff and ambulance crew.

3. He was given high-dose steroids less than 15 minutes after his injury. Steroids are very powerful anti-inflammatories. Their use in trauma is controversial. They do help protect neurological tissue from injury during planned surgery. We use steroids all the time in neurosurgery before surgical intervention. If we didn’t, the swelling would be terrible and would make the surgery exceedingly difficult. Luckily, Kevin was in good enough physical condition that he didn’t suffer the negative effects that steroids can have on people.

Gibbons, as well as others, advocates that more research must be done before anything can be said for certain. 

TH Pre-Hospital

Could Therapeutic Hypothermia be the wave of the future in the pre-hospital setting? The aforementioned New York Times article said:

But Everett’s case may be the earliest application of treatment for a spinal cord injury because doctors were on the scene.

There are 11,000 spinal cord injury cases a year in the United States, according to the Spinal Cord Injury Information Network. Most victims do not have doctors standing by, thus making cases of early intervention with cold therapy difficult to study.

“How could you get treatment to a patient quickly in another scenario?” said Dr. James Weinstein, editor of the journal Spine and director of Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice.

The first step is more research, which must include experimental protocol and procedure for EMS agencies around the country. As stated above, the issue is that TH is not readily available to most patients as it was to Everett thanks to the medical staff of the Buffalo Bills. The only way to make it so is via EMS providers. A carefully documented study of TH in the EMS setting is needed to determine, if any, the benefits.

It would, of course, require special equipment on the pre-hospital side. Some ambulances now come equipt with small refrigeration units, often used to store drugs that require such cooling. These could easily be adapted to house cooled saline as well. In additional, special kits are making their way onto the market, such as this one:

This would allow EMS providers to go so far as to initiate TH on the field, essentially as soon as physically possible following the injury. The first step, EMS wise, is education. Providers must be educated regarding the proper criteria for such treatment. New, and experimental, protocols and SOP’s would be required. Moreover, the participation of the hospitals at all levels is a must. If TH is initiated, it is often continued for 24 hours, which means that once it is begun in the field it must be continued in the hospital.

Conclusion

One thing is for certain, there is growing concern regarding traumatic brain injuries, especially on the grid iron. Given the role that EMS plays in caring for athletes, from the professional level all the way down to pop warner, providers and their medical directors can hardly afford to ignore the potential benefits of TH. If it can be shown that it does, in fact, improve the outcome for the patient, it needs to be explored and implemented. After all, isn’t that what medicine is all about?

Pictures and articles used in this article are not property of the Chris Petrick. They are property of the author and his/her governing agency.

Well first just a bit of housekeeping regarding the blog… I am changing formats! In the past this site has been pretty much exclusively theology and church stuff, and while I still plan on doing that from time to time, I feel as though it’s time to broaden my scope as it were. So from this point forward, you’ll find all sorts of topics here ranging from my own personal life to my thoughts on sports (including a weekly NFL picks column ala Bill Simmons) to, well, more theology. The new format will give me freedom to write a lot more (hopefully) and provide some of you (my friends!) insight into what’s going on in my world… assuming you care. And if you don’t, then what are you doing here exactly? Now, on to the latest…

Just in case you haven’t it through the rumor mill, I’ve enlisted in the United States Navy. I’m leaving for Boot Camp on August 09, 2011. Boot is an 8 week endeavor, plus 1 week of processing (i.e. tests, tests, and some more tests) so we’ll call it 9 weeks to be safe. This is done at the Navy’s Recruit Training Command in Great Lakes, Ill, near Chicago on the shores of Lake Michigan. Oh yes, I’m going to Great Lakes during two of the hottest months of the year… Which to me seemed better than going in the winter b/c there is significantly less chance I will be woken up in the middle of the night to shovel snow. I mean, I suppose it’s still possible but it just seems way less likely. At boot we learn basic sailoring, need to know stuff about the Navy, and, of course, physical training. I will get into more logistics in later posts, but right now let me address a few FAQs…

Why?

What it comes down to for me is one word: duty. I am NOT an American apologist, nor do I believe that we live in a perfect country. We make more than our fair share of mistakes, I think we can all agree on that. Don’t get me wrong, I love this country but I’m not what you would call a “hardcore” patriot, at least not all the time. However, that being said, our country is pretty great. In fact, we have it much better than most the world. My story is just a little different than others, as I wasn’t born in this country. I was born in Seoul, South Korea and adopted by my parents Bev and Dave at the age of 5 months. I don’t know what my life would’ve been like in Korea, but I’m positive it would not have been nearly as good as the life I’m fortunate enough to lead here. Living in America provides us all with opportunities unique to a country that enjoys the freedoms we enjoy. No one is going to give you anything, you have to earn it, but the opportunities are there for you to make a life for yourself. You might be rich, at least not financially, but like me you’ll have enough to live comfortably and provide for your family. If you work hard you can accomplish anything.

Here’s what it comes down to for me: I believe we have lost our sense of duty to this country. Think about the history of the United States. This nation of ours is built on the backs and sacrifices of those who said, “I will be different. I will sacrifice a ‘normal’ life. I will answer the call.” A quote from historian Stephen Ambrose sums it up best:

They wanted to be throwing baseballs, not hand grenades, shooting .22′s at rabbits, not M-1′s at other young men. But when the test came, when freedom had to be fought for or abandoned, they fought.

Were it not for countless men and women who were and are willing to lay aside the “normal” life and do something extraordinary, we would most certainly not be the country we are today. However, I look around me and everywhere I see people who want to things but don’t want to have to work for them. Everyone feels entitled to things, including this thing we call freedom, but no one seems willing to work for it, to protect it, to sacrifice on its behalf. I include in this list, by the way, the men and women of public safety including police, fire, and your friendly neighborhood paramedics. The decision to dedicate your life to serving others, be it in the military or one of the aforementioned professions, is all too rare of a thing.

But these things must be done. Fires must be put out. Criminals must be caught. Patients must receive care. Freedom must be fought for. And it takes US (yes, you and me) standing up and saying, “I will do that” to keep this country great. Imagine if whenever something difficult needed to be done, everyone simply said, “Can’t someone else do it?” Nothing would ever get accomplished, right down to the smallest of tasks.

Allow me to be clear, I’m not saying I deserve to be praised for what I’m going to do. What I am saying is that I strongly believe we all have a duty to give back, however that might take shape. Volunteer. Feed the hungry. Clothe the naked. Heal the sick. Care for those in need. (Sounds like what that Jesus guy said…) 

Don’t wait for someone else to do it, do what needs to be done. And don’t stand around waiting to be thanked, praised, or recognized after it’s over. Just take satisfaction in knowing you did what needed to be done with all that you had. No one ever said it would be easy, they just said it would be worth it.

Why the Navy?

I’ve been asked this one quite a bit. The best answer I can come up with is that I was raised on and around the water. I grew up in Spirit Lake, Iowa, right next to East Lake Okoboji. In the summertime when I was young, I feel like we practically lived in the lakes. With that in mind, the Navy was a natural choice. Beyond that, I felt drawn to the Navy for the career opportunities there. The Air Force probably offered the most limited of the branches in my particular area, as the legendary Air Force Pararescueman was really the only possibility for me there. That schools sports an attrition rate of something like 86% and I didn’t feel like it was best to put all of the eggs of my military career in that basket. I did have talks with the United States Army, but a negative experience with a recruiter ultimately turned me away from that. In essence what happened was I never received a phone call back from him after leaving several messages.

I have several friends who served in the Navy, so that probably had the biggest affect on my decision. I was able to talk everything through with them and get what I believed is an honest depiction of what to expect. (Paul, Tim, and Clay, thanks for all of your help!) After a few visits with my recruiter, I decided the Hospital Corpsman was the right route for me, primarily based on the opportunities I would have to serve in a wide variety of settings from combat medicine to hospital based EMS to search and rescue. At this point I’m not too set on one thing or the other, I’m waiting to see what comes my way and trying to enjoy the ride.

How long is the enlistment?

My enlistment is 8 years, 5 of active duty and 3 in the Individual Ready Reserves (IRR). IRR is a period during which you maintain your eligibility for military service and can technically be called back in during a time of conflict, which according to everyone I’ve asked basically never happens.

Where is training?

Boot Camp is in Great Lakes, Illinois, as previously mentioned. Corpsman School is now in San Antonio, TX and is a 14-week course. This may get shortened for me, because part of it is earning a national certification as an EMT, and my current certifications exceed that requirement. What typically comes after that is your first duty station, either a boat or a base hospital. Some of us will be sent to Field Combat Medic School in California or North Carolina for a tour with the Fleet Marine Force (don’t forget, the Marines are a division of the Navy).Right now I could not be more excited about the Navy. As with most things in life, I believe it is what you make of it. If you approach a thing with the attitude that it’s going to suck and generally be the worst experience you’ve ever had, I’d be willing to bet you won’t end up having a good time. On the other hand, if you come into a thing thinking that, while it will be challenging, the experience will be unique and, at times, even fun then it won’t be so bad. This is the attitude that I’m trying to have about all things. The things you have to do in life won’t always be fun, but if you can come in with a positive attitude it usually helps quite a bit. And remember, nothing lasts forever. So even if it turns out that it’s not a good time, eventually it will be over and you won’t be doing that any more. It’s a good attitude to have when working out too, just FYI.

To all of my friends and family: thank you. You have all been a part of shaping me into the young man that I am. I appreciate your past, present, and continued support. Knowing that I have you all behind me makes the coming challenges infinitely easier to take on. I make you this promise: I will make you all proud. 

The Sailors Creed:

I am a United States Sailor.

I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States of America and obey the orders of those appointed over me.

I represent the fighting spirit of the Navy and those that have gone before me to defend freedom and democracy around the world.

I serve my country’s Navy combat team with honor, courage, and commitment.

I am dedicated to the exellence and fair treatment of all.

I couldn’t say it any better than that.

Once I prayed for a pony. As a newly turned 8 year old, I desperately wanted a pony. Let’s be honest, what little girl doesn’t at one time or another want their own majestic stallion? And even though my family had no way of accommodating such a desire, I had the understanding that if I prayed hard enough, God would pull through and provide somehow. After all, why wouldn’t God answer a child’s prayer? His child’s prayer?…
I never got a pony.

Much later in my life, I asked God to aid in the recovery of my very badly broken heart (I know I’m getting personal here, but stuff like this happens often enough that I figured some people could relate…). I endured many long and, what seemed to be, very lonely months. I was praying for relief, hoping for freedom, and wishing for instantaneous rebirth…which never came…or at least, not in the way I wanted or was expecting. Along the way, there were situations and people which were carefully placed into my life. They taught me that sometimes you have to be broken down completely before you can be built back up, and it hurts…but it’s something some people have to endure. After a year of ‘trauma,’ relearning how to trust, and trying to love myself, I met somebody who changed my life and how I viewed it…
But a broken heart never heals completely.

Every Christian wonders now and then if there’s a listening ear that hears the pain that’s cried out…and if that ear belongs to God. What good does it do to voice pain and concern to a god we can’t physically see? I often wonder whether or not acknowledging my struggles through prayer and conversation with God helps at all… I mean, God IS, right? He’s all around, made and sees everything…Wouldn’t God just know? And if God does know…how do we? If I ask Him something, how will I know if I get an answer?

After reading through the previously published entries, I resonated with what last week’s author, Nick Brannen, said about how hearing God is like the fundamental communication process. As a communications major myself, I am well aware that the sender-receiver process is crucial, and is often understated in its importance. What is also very key is recognizing the barriers that can permit the message from getting to its intended recipient. In this context, the barriers of our communication with God are not only found on our turf (meaning we’re not listening to God when He speaks to us), but also on the Heavenly home-front (we can’t see God, so how do we know He’s there?). It’s kind of like when you’re trying to talk to someone who is clearly occupied with some other nonsense and isn’t giving you their full attention… No eye contact. Mumbled responses. Really loud and questioning ‘HUH?’s at any given moment. It’s hard to talk to someone when you feel like they’re not listening to you. It’s even more frustrating when that person should be listening to you.

Somebody told me once that praying doesn’t do anything for us but help us vent and let out our stresses and fears. Their argument was that God is going to do what God is going to do, so for us to put so much stock into Him answering our prayers is just silly. I guess the purpose then, if there is one, is the psychological comfort that comes with voicing the things that consume us. The psychology-nerd in me says that does actually make a little bit of sense and is very true for me atleast. It’s like going to a close friend (or in many of my cases, a certain professor in one of my departments of study at Simpson College who dopes up on Rockstar and likes to confuse people with theological jargon) and telling them your problem(s) but they don’t really have any novel advice to give you. You feel better after talking, but the problem doesn’t just go away…
 
Yeah, that’s a nice idea…but I’m not about to take out my credit card and buy it.

I don’t know how many people know this, but the Bible talks about prayer a lot. According to an online source, the Bible has over 500 uses of the words pray, prayer, prayed, or praying quoted, in any given translation. Bible editions aside, let’s look at some of the biblical stories themselves: In Genesis, a pregnant Hagar prays in the desert after running away from Abraham and Sarah (and is actually the first person to give God a name other than ‘the Lord’). Moses prays and talks directly to God a lot (via burning bush or on a mountain). The Israelites complain in the desert, Moses prays, and they get stuff like food and water. David prays for strength and wisdom. Jesus prays when he’s tempted in the wilderness, in the garden at Gethsemane on the night he was betrayed, and as he was about to die nailed to a wooden cross… God seemed to be very present when these people prayed, so why do we all of the sudden have to question His authority? ‘Oh, but all of that stuff happened a long time ago in the Bible. Of course God was there then, but he’s not here now.’

So why pray?

Before we start looking at the initial question of this entry, I think it would be wise to identify some different kinds of prayer. There are many ways of praying and types of prayer, but I think by examining a few of them a little more closely, it could help give insight to the topic in question.

Let’s start with one we all might know: the standard, “I want to ask Jesus into my heart” prayer. Most Christians tend to have prayed this prayer when they come to some understanding of who Jesus is, why he’s important, and recognizing that they want to know him. Personally, I don’t remember praying this prayer. I started going to church on my own when I was pretty young, and I just kind of always felt Jesus was very real and present in my life, so there was no need to ask, “Hey would you come into my life Jesus? Because I think I could really use this God thing…” It differs from person to person, but typically, I think a lot of Christians can identify with having prayed a ‘prayer of salvation.’ This is where we can probably acknowledge the beginning stages of “praying.” It’s the initial act of identifying and putting faith into something you can’t see… When you pray, you acknowledge God’s existence… You see that there is someone to pray to.

Another kind of prayer is praying for oneself. (I want to make the distinction, though, that I don’t mean praying for reconciliation of sins. That is a type of “self-prayer”, which is very important to our relationship with God, but for this example I wish to exclude it.) When talking about praying for ourselves, right away I start to guilt trip myself. I’ve prayed a lot of selfish prayers over the years. But we all do it, right? “God, please help me get this job so I can have enough money to buy a new laptop or some trendy new clothes.” “God, it would be awesome if you could help that guy like me so I can have a date to my friend’s wedding.” “God, could you please make my life easier? Thanks.” If only it worked that way… The problem I have with self-prayer is, not only is it almost always selfish and egotistical, but often times it’s about really dumb stuff that’s probably not good for us anyway. It would take more than two hands to count how many times I’ve asked God for something that, in hind-sight, if it would have been answered how I wanted, would have been disastrous to my well-being. This is where I feel comfortable saying that God knows what’s best for us…especially since we often don’t. As humans we’re almost guaranteed to fail without a little direction. When I don’t know what to do, I pray, and this is the thing I have learned about praying: When you ask God something, there’s always an answer…it just might not be the one you want. God looks out for us. He doesn’t want us to fail. And even if we do mess up really badly, there’s always a way for us to come back to Him if we want to. 
 
The praying that I do a lot of the time is praying for others. I’m not trying to be all self-righteous by saying how much I pray for other people, but I think there’s something important about recognizing the pain and struggles of others, whether they are Christians or not. To me, claiming to be a Christian means knowing and accepting the challenge of helping to spread what Jesus started, and that’s Love. Praying for others is a very simple way of expressing the love and compassion I have for people simply because they’re people…God’s people. I’m not always the best at doing this, but God knows what’s in our hearts…by acknowledging that we see the hungers of the world (and care about them), I think that shows God that our faith is real, and that it’s not just some prayer we prayed when we were 5 and forgot about…  A lot of the time we can feel so small and helpless in situations that exceed our realm of changing. Sometimes all you can do is pray and hope that the situation is rightfully in God’s hands… But when we do acknowledge this, miraculous things can happen: People are healed, relationships strengthen, and circumstances improve against the odds.

There’s a verse in Hebrews that explains faith pretty simply, but to me, appropriately. It’s Hebrews 11:1 – “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, and the conviction of things unseen.” (NRSV)

What praying comes down to is a connection between a person and God, a communication process of sorts. The more you pray, the more it is possible to know God, hear God, see God, or at least, know there is a God. But I think praying has to mean something also… Not in the sense that you’re a “better Christian” if you pray a lot, but it should come from the heart. If it’s a genuine prayer, God will know. It still might not get the answer you want, but by recognizing that God does exists and that He can answer prayers, it helps to build something beautiful…a relationship. And isn’t that what we all want as Christians? A relationship with our Creator? Feeling the love that has always been there for us? Knowing that living out our faith in a world where it is often shunned means something?

If we return to the question, “Does God really answer prayer?”, it’s obvious that there is no simple or correct answer. I can point to many times when my prayers have clearly been answered in my favor, but there have also been times when I have felt a void and vacancy where God should be. Looking back on those times, it would have seemed that God answered, “No” to whatever I asked for or consulted Him about. But no one ever thinks that at the time…we all want to be optimistic because we’re good Christians, hoping that if we do what God wants we’ll be rewarded accordingly… The reality is we want the instantaneous results that have been demanded by our society. Wanting things in a timely fashion has almost become innate to us. It’s almost as though patience doesn’t exist anymore, and especially when it comes to relying on God. We don’t want to slow down, be quiet, and wait. After all, time is money (and believe it or not, by reading this, you’re actually wasting both of those things…or so it would appear). But how hard is it to pray? The thing is, it isn’t. Praying doesn’t have to be time consuming, formatted with a title page and subject line saying, “Dear God, I am about to pray! You better be listening because this is important stuff. If I don’t hear from you in a week, consider us not friends anymore. To You, From Me.” The hard part comes when we expect immediate answers from God…and then don’t get them. Our inevitable disappointment which comes with such high expectations fosters our lack of faith, and we steer clear of praying because we don’t want to waste time on something that isn’t going to happen. But did it ever occur that maybe God doesn’t have to operate according to our standards? What does He owe us anyway?… Maybe we owe it to God to spend more time trusting in and waiting on Him than hoping He’ll make our lives more convenient.

What may or may not always be evident to us is that God does hear and He does speak…we just may not always be looking and listening for the answers which we seek. My experience tells me that every prayer has an answer, whether we want the one we get or not, and those answers aren’t something we can earn, predict, or expect in a timely manner. I mean, it’s God…maybe we’re not supposed to know how everything is going to play out…and I’m ok with that. Well, the control-freak part of me isn’t, but the faithful part of me is… With knowing God comes the challenge of trusting God, and when we trust, we can develop a relationship that is far beyond our expectations.

By Contributing Author: Erin Guzman
Erin currently attends Simpson College, where she studies communication and is active with the Religious Life Community. She is spending her summer in an internship in Okoboji working with a local church.

Most Christians would find it life changing and downright awesome to have Jesus Christ walking right next to them all day long, whispering advice and direction in their ear. Christians would be sinning less, pleasing God more, and winning the lottery left and right.
Although we don’t have Jesus to walk around with us, he said that it would be even better that he send the Holy Spirit, the Counselor, to be with us. This means that the Spirit of God is readily available to those who believe. Sweet.

I feel it is important to make the distinction that the heart of this question is not so much as to if God is speaking, but what God is saying. So the question becomes ‘How do we know what God’s message is for us individually?’

In all good communication there is a sender and receiver of a message. The sender constructs a message to be sent to the receiver, and the receiver tries to understand the intended meaning of the sender’s message. BAM! That’s an entire semester of communication 101 in a few short sentences. We go through this same process in hearing God. We receive and decode the message that God sends us to understand what God desires of us.

My biggest fear as a Christian is hearing God incorrectly. What if there is a communication breakdown between the divine to the profane? What if God gives me his divine direction for my life and I misinterpret it? What if I think God is calling me to reach out to someone and he actually wasn’t and a make a fool out of myself? What if I am so hyped up emotionally that I just think God is speaking to me? What if I put words in God’s mouth? What if I get it wrong?

I want to feel secure in what God is really calling me to. But this is extremely difficult because God seems send two very different types of messages.

1. God says things that make a whole lot of sense.  Don’t murder anyone. Makes sense right? Whether God is telling me this or not it’s a good message to live by because it makes sense. It makes sense, given the emotional and domestic scars left by adultery, that we should be faithful to our spouses. It makes sense to gather wisdom. It makes sense to do what is just. Few people have to wonder if God is really calling them to do these things or if they are making something up on their own. However, not everything God said has made perfect sense to the receiver of his message. 

2. God says things that make almost no sense. Noah was told to build a huge boat. Abraham was told to sacrifice his only son. Moses was told to lead Israel out of bondage. Mere fishermen were told to follow this rabbi named Jesus, when only the best and the brightest became disciples of such a man. In all these cases God asked for something quite peculiar. Though in hindsight everything God asked his people to do had a purpose; however, it required great faith and obedience at the time these messages were given.

My fear of hearing God incorrectly at the time when he gives me a message is rooted in a problem that I call the ‘God, devil, or burrito dilemma ‘. When I think that God might be communicating something to me I always second guess myself asking, ‘am I just making something up in my head because I just really want to hear from God? Is Satan trying to confuse me so I can never fully hear and understand God’s voice? Maybe this bad feeling I have is just the burrito I had for lunch and not God’s spirit.’

I feel that is first important to understand who God is and how he communicates if we are to understand his message for us.

God is a multimedia communicator. We have thousands of ways to communicate a message. We have phones, internet, even the way that we look at someone communicates something. We have to consider that God also has multiple ways of sending us a message, and some are not so traditional.  Scripture shows a few of the ways that God communicates with us.

- Scripture – God’s written word
- Other people or prophecy
- Spiritual “messengers” known as angels
- Dreams and visions
- Theophany (which is a fancy word for God shows up in burning bushes and such)
- Miracles
- The Holy Spirit interacts directly with our spirit

We should understand that God speaks through these traditional methods found in scripture as well as many non traditional methods such as weather, what some call coincidence, repetition, etc.

God is a master communicator. Part of being a great communicator is knowing your audience. God has a wonderful advantage here because he knows his audience better than the audience knows themselves.  If God has a something to say to you, he knows exactly how to communicate it to you in a way that you will understand at the right time.

But if that is true then why do so many reject the Gospel? Perhaps its not because God is failing to communicate, but that the audience has no faith to listen. Many say they might believe in God if he would just speak up. To me, this seems very arrogant before the God of the universe. I imagine God thinking, ‘Do you even know who I am? I am God – you are man. Since when did God owe anything to man? Since when did man not owe everything to his creator?’

To hear from God requires first submitting to God. ‘Do not copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will know what God wants you to do, and you will know how good and pleasing and perfect his will really is.’ If you allow God to mold you how he wants and allow him to shape way you think then you will be in a position to understand God’s message and know it is good.

What gets in the way is selfishness. You mold yourself. You need to get something from God before you give anything of yourself. Imagine an ordinary man writes a letter to a king saying ‘Hey big royal important king dude! If you want me to be your loyal subject then you must give me a very good reason why. Oh, and I need you to come to my house in royal garb, with trumpets, and present your case. Once you do all this in the manner of my choosing (and don’t forget to present two forms of identification so I know it’s really you) then I will consider following you as king. Unless, of course, following you as king is uncomfortable or difficult.  Until then, I am my own boss, thank you very much.”

How would a King respond to a letter like this? Arrest the man for opposing the throne? God responds with patience and grace. He continues to speak, but on his terms. Without submitting, it as though our spiritual cell phones have no signal. God is calling, but we don’t receive the call. If we open and submitted to God we are in the position where we can begin to learn how to hear his voice.

Here are some quick tips from my own experience in listening to God.

- If you are just beginning to learn to hear God’s voice reject anything that you feel God, satan, or the burrito is telling you to do that benefits you. Instead whenever it could benefit the kingdom, go for it every time!
- Learn to be quiet – God is said to speak in a still, small voice
- Confess your sins regularly. Sin is the opposite of submission to God. It is much easier to communicate with him when present sin isn’t in the way
- Remember that God will never communicate anything that contradicts scripture!

How do you communicate with God? How do you learn to know what he is telling you? 

Shalom,
Nick

From contributing author Nick Brannen
Nick is a graduate of Valley High School and currently studies Speech Communication Iowa State University. A very talented musician and gifted communicator, Nick spends a lot of his time digging into God and God’s word in multiple venues and mediums. Nick is recently engaged and is excited about his future with his fiance Michelle.

I wonder if this question wouldn’t be put more pointedly if it were phrased this way: “If we can’t earn salvation, then why do good things?”  Because what good, after all, is forgiveness if it doesn’t place us among God’s chosen, ‘the saved’ –you know, those smiley recipients of reservations for that old luxury resort in the clouds, which will never have a check out date?  Let’s face it: very, very few of us, really, give a damn when it comes to the entire realm of the Divine without the immediate, explicit, and deeply-ingrained concern of ‘what’s in it for me?’  Let’s just try and be honest here: most of us are only concerned with whether or not we are personally or collectively forgiven insofar as our status before God potentially bears some sort of tangible outcome demonstrable via punishment or reward –suffering or happiness, pain or pleasure. 

These are the terms which naturally dictate our thought process, so the way we will almost always respond to such a question will be in response to this very self-concerned perspective on human motivations.  Within this realm of human logic, we’ve got about four options for responses when it comes to the question of Why should I do “good” things (assuming that we actually can do “good things”; but more on that in a minute)?  And those are:

A.)  Otherwise You’ll Spend A Really, Really, Really, Really Long Time In a Very Burn-y Place.
B.)  So Others Will (Hopefully) Do Good Things For You (At Some Future, Indeterminate Time and Location).
C.)  Just Like Eating Your Vegetables, ‘It’s Good For You.’ (Perhaps, Morally Speaking, You’ll Be Able to Drop Trou and Shake Whatever God Gave You in the Direction of the Poor Degenerates Who Cohabitate This God-Forsaken Planet.)
D.)  It Doesn’t Matter, So Let’s Chew Some ‘Shrooms and Get Naked!

Now, given that pretty much any rationale for positive action boils down to one of those first four responses (at least, that’s about how I see it –feel free to argue with me about it if the urge arises), let’s ponder the prospects of actually doing something ‘good’ for God.  If your motivation for pulling over to help an elderly woman change a flat tire is scoring some Heaven Points, or making society a better place (which will be better for you and your offspring in the long run), or to get that warm-fuzzy feeling when the old bat says ‘thank-you,’ then it sort of seems less ‘good’, doesn’t it?  And this is clearly because you’re intentions never extend beyond self-interest.  Or, to put the matter in financial terms (because every conscientious American understands these things when cast under this particular light), lending money to an acquaintance who happens to be in need seems like a nice gesture –but it becomes a different matter entirely if you charge 15% interest, compounded daily.  Clearly, at least from the borrower’s perspective in this scenario, what separates benevolence from being unable to sit down for weeks on end is the presence and degree of selfish motivation.

Now the question arises on whether or not it is actually possible to do anything that is purely and intrinsically selfless –and I’m not sure there’s a clear answer on this one (which thankfully isn’t the point).  I’ll momentarily go post-modern here and say my opinion is a good, solid: Maybe.  But what is clear is that some motivations are more heavily and explicitly selfish than others.  For instance, if you do charge interest when you lend money, there is a difference from charging 20% and charging 1%.  Charging only 1% is on the surface less selfish than the alternative.  Moreover, beyond concern for the involvement of interest rates, it makes a difference whether or not you expect a return of the favor down the road, or even if you expect the money back at all.  And then, of course, there are different kinds of currencies that can be returned that don’t involve money, such as public recognition and approval, the potential reception of God’s favor, sexual attention for being “a good person”, etc., etc.   And again, in all of these areas of conceivable reward/benefit, selfish motivation comes into play in varying degrees.
   
Therefore, given that selfishness varies in its level of intentionality and awareness, “doing good” in vague, practical terms means progressively minimizing selfish motivations.  To theologize this on-line, monologous (I think I just invented that word) discourse, doing good means acting purposefully and continually to minimize things like greed, vanity, pride, lust, envy, gluttony, sloth, (1,2,3,4,5,6…) and wrath –in both their internal and public manifestations. 
Yet, just when it seems like we’ve accomplished something, we once again return to the same, old question: if we can’t earn some sort of reward for our efforts, why make the attempt to do ‘good’? 

Look around at the world for a while and let me know how your impulses toward either wrath or sloth turn out.  

And thus the question is further qualified: why [try to] do good?  Period.  And any attempt to rationalize or justify doing good will reduce to cyclical logic, continually feeding back in upon itself, taking your sense of goodness and rotting it from the inside out.  (As a side note, this has been what’s convicted me of the reality of the doctrine of Original Sin.)  Hey, and I’m with you in you’re thinking that even ethical arguments, and the promotion of self-betterment are more worthy alternatives to letting greed and selfishness (evil) run rampant.  But it still doesn’t answer the question.  Not really.

Strangely, I’ve thought a lot about this question over the years, and the only sort of resolution I can come up with is to return to that old Sunday School Teacher cliché: ‘Because God said so.’ And I’m not sure that we can, as human beings, ever get beyond that. 

God knows what is Good.  Indeed, ontologically speaking, God is the only thing that is Good, in the purest sense of the word.  So doing ‘good’ means obeying God, and that is the end of our justification.  There is no ‘well, it will have this result’, or ‘God will in turn do this for you…’  You don’t know that –you can’t know that (unless perhaps God tells you, in the form of a promise… which is another, equally sticky debate).  Thus, the command of God is the last answer to the question –everything beyond that is speculations, counting on Grace that hasn’t been dispensed yet in the moment, making it unreal, untrue –a lie.   

Obviously, this is going to be a troubling conclusion to draw, and for a number of reasons.  There remains a vast multitude of impending wars to be fought over the authentic claims to God’s authority; it upsets our vision of the ‘goodness’ of this life; and it calls into question the very nature of our relationship(s) with God. It may even reshape the way we envision God.  Then, in turn, everything we do in connection to God is disrupted.  Can we even Evangelize anymore?  How and why should we spread what we believe about God and Jesus –without explicitly appealing to the language of selfishness (which is our only given common language)?  What would our proclamations sound like?  ‘Believe in God, because God said so!’ ? 

Well, I suppose it’s a start isn’t it?  Yet, indeed we can speak more clearly about God to others, because we are in relationship with God.  We try to obey what God tells us, because God has given us life.  Because God has created.  Because God has given.  Because God is loving and merciful, and just (in a way that humans can’t be), and vengeful, and amazing, and terrifying.  And all of our lives are a response to that, a bold and hopeful testimony of thanksgiving and passing along.  And so we do good, because that is the only way that we can ever participate in any real sense of goodness.  We give and receive; those around us give and receive; God gives and receives.  And it’s good.  Or we’re simply here, together; and maybe that’s even better. 

With one last thought (and then you can go back to screwing around on Facebook or Youtube or whatever): consider the cross, which has been and still is a heavy sticking point for those who give Christianity any serious thought.  However, in my mind, it is at precisely this point that Christianity presents a unique perspective amidst the vast sea of worldviews and religions.  ‘If you want to be my disciples,’ Jesus says, ‘take up your cross and follow me.’  This sounds to me very much like a call to at least prepare and face suffering, humiliation and death.  It doesn’t suggest that suffering and death aren’t real, and it doesn’t minimize the terror of the view as it draws near; but it’s a command, which somehow, incomprehensibly, connects the path of suffering and death with God’s goodness.  How it does this is something worth talking about and maybe even speculating upon.  But regardless of the ‘how’, it nonetheless stretches our experience of what “Goodness” means in a way that I can’t imagine otherwise.  And may we share this Goodness unto death. 

By Contributing Author Jeremy Poland
Jeremy is a graduate of Simpson College in Indianola, the college of choice for several of the authors on this website. He attended Drew Theological Seminary in New Jersey where he earned his Masters of Divinity. Jeremy currently resides in the Des Moines Metro area with his wife, where he serves as a youth minister.

Being a United Methodist, I definitely come at this topic with a specific bent on what I have learned through my denominational resources, specifically the writings and sermons of our founder, John Wesley.  With that being said, I now present to you my ideas and case about the topic “Can I Lose My Salvation”?  First of all, this concept is one that I struggle with on a regular basis.  Is there ever any point where I can actually sin away the salvation imparted to me by the grace of God through the death and resurrection of Christ Jesus?  Is there any possible way in the world for me to actually self-sabotage myself enough to lose my salvation?  As is the case often with me, the answer is yes.  But the answer is also no.  Or maybe the answer is maybe.  Here is what I think, here is what I know, and attempted to be within the confines of 1500 words…

Sin.  Sin entered this world, from the Christian standpoint, when Adam and Eve directly disobeyed God and ate the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden.  Three chapters into the sacred text, humanity has already disobeyed God!  Only three chapters into the Bible, humanity is faced with the reality and the need to reconcile with the creator.  Throughout the Old Testament, animal and grain sacrifices were given to God as a way of this reconciliation. 

The New Testament comes, and Christ, the second person of the Holy Trinity, is sent to take the place of the animals and grain, becoming the living sacrifice for those who believed.  The Father gives the Son up and is mediated through the Spirit.  We are told the Spirit of God continues to guide us and lead us if we obey. 
But there is that tricky thing that continues to get in the way, continues to harm not only you and me, but harm our relationship between God and creation.  No matter how upright of a life we try to live, sin is still a constant threat.  Sin does not cease to exist in the life and heart of a Christian.  Just because a person has had a change of heart, has accepted Christ as their savior and committed themselves to live a Christian life does not mean sin does not still attack.  Justified Christians are not completely and wholly transformed into the image of God simply because they are justified.  Christians are inundated with greed, lust, and other desires of the heart that are unclean and unholy.  This, for John Wesley, is proof for the need of continued repentance throughout the Christian life.  Wesley states, “In this sense we are to repent after we are justified.  And till we do so we can go no farther.  For till we are sensible of our disease it admits of no cure.”  If Christians do not continue to repent, to acknowledge their brokenness before God, then they grow stagnant, no longer being able to move forward in the life of Christ. 

But what happens when the repentance of our sin stops?  What happens when the sin that fills our lives becomes the chief focus, blocking out any and all traces of our relationship with God?  If someone is not responding to God’s love, if there is not a mutual indwelling, by all means the Spirit would grow stagnate and should withdraw.  But, how much does it take for the Spirit to do so?  How long must we ignore God before the Spirit departs?

At times, this thought of quenching the Spirit, disallowing the Spirit to actively work within our lives, almost seems like the moral of the story from “The Boy Who Cried Wolf.”  This concept is oversimplifying the theological matter, but at the same time is insightful about proving the point.  In the story, a bored shepherd boy thought it would be fun calling out “wolf” as he tended his flock.  Villagers who responded to the wolf calls found that the alarms were false and that they had wasted their time trying to help. When the boy was actually confronted by a wolf, the villagers did not believe his cries for help and the wolf ate the flock.  At times, humanity’s sinful nature seems exactly like the boy crying out wolf.  We get bored, we are enticed to do something we know we shouldn’t, and then we feel bad about it.  But, then the cycle repeats itself.  Eventually, we don’t feel as bad about the mistake we made, and the mistake becomes a part of who we are.  When Christians know they have made a mistake, the right thing is to repent, fall on our knees and ask forgiveness.  But, according to the cycle described above, when we repeat a mistake enough times, the idea to need forgiveness for said action begins to erode.  We may go to God in prayer and ask forgiveness, but if it has become second nature to sin, we may not fully mean what we are asking God to do.  We are crying wolf.  Eventually, usually in times of trial or grief, we may find ourselves finally going to God in earnest.

But, when we continually sin, continually cry wolf, there has to be consequences.  If people did not adequately have a fear of God, they would simply live a life without care, which could end in a type of lawlessness.  The popular thought with Justification was that once a person was justified, this action wiped the slate clean, absolving the newly justified from all past and future sins.  This scared Wesley, because he believed in a proper fear of disappointing God. 
This is where the theology gets a little dangerous.  I agree with Wesley to an extent.  Wesley states, “For it plainly appears God does not continue to act upon the soul unless the soul re-acts upon God…But if we do not then love him who first loved us…his Spirit will not always strive; he will gradually withdraw, and leave us to the darkness within our own hearts.”  There has to be a mutual indwelling, of God in us and us in God. 

The quenching of the spirit is a theological issue, but is also a moral issue.  Living a life where we live in a mutually indwelling relationship with God, where we recognize the grace given to us to save us from what we truly deserve based on our actions, rescues us from forcing the Spirit out.  We cannot expect there to be an exact timeline when it comes to the Spirit departing a wayward sinner.  Time to God is not the same as time to us.  However, doesn’t there need to be some sort of “point of no return”?  Logically, this would make sense, but does not hold true to the nature of the grace of God.  Wesley thinks, and I agree, that even if one falls away completely, one can still be restored to life anew.  However, there must once again be a rededication of one’s life to the aims of Christ.

We cannot know what the timeline is for the Spirit leaving; therefore we should not worry about it.  Instead of focusing on the negative, how much it will take, we should worry more about the upkeep of the relationship with God, praying genuinely to overcome our sinful nature.  If we dwell in our sin, letting it control our lives, we simply allow ourselves to ask useless questions.  When we are able to look past our sin, when we are able to keep our mouths shut instead of crying wolf, we can see God’s grace and acceptance, the calling to be in relationship.  The question of when the Spirit will depart becomes irrelevant if we continue to allow our souls to breathe towards him.  The question of how much sin it takes for a human to force the Spirit out becomes moot if we strive to continue to grow in God’s grace.

You without sin cast the first stone.  A simple phrase spoken from the lips of Christ.  But in those words is great knowledge.  Even those who ran the temples, the holiest of holy, were not without sin.  They were not beyond reproach from God; they were not beyond Jesus knowing every wrong they did.  And neither are we.  We are not beyond God’s scope.  We are not beyond the need to ask for forgiveness.  It is only through continual repentance throughout our Christian life that we can continue to grow in faith and righteousness. 

By Contributing Author Andrew Bardole
Andrew attended Northwestern College in Orange City, IA where he received his degree in history. He then went on to Dubuque Theological Seminary and currently serves as the Associate Pastor at First United Methodist in Indianola, IA. He lives with his wife and two daughters.

Imagine you awaken, and you’re entirely submersed in water. As far as you can see in every direction, there is nothing but deep, blue water that seems to never end. You turn to the left, and the view is exactly the same. You turn back to your right, and again, you see nothing but the same endless blue. You look up, and down, and everything looks the same. Water. No source of light, no movement in the distance, nothing.

Then, you try kicking your legs to swim, but you don’t move. You look down to see what’s happening, but you realize that your legs are gone. Where you’d expect to see your legs and torso, and even your arms, it’s only more of the same: water. In a panic, you start looking all around you for something, anything to give you even the small idea of where you are and what happened to your body. And in that panic, you lose your sense of direction. You’re unable to remember where your eyes were when you woke up because everything looks the same. Suddenly, you don’t know left from right, up from down.

All of your attempts to move, to see, or to experience anything other than this despair-inducing depth of water are in vain. You don’t even know where you end, and the water begins…

What was the point of this exercise? It’s a fair question, and I promise the answer wasn’t to depress you or make you feel hopeless (though, if I did, it won’t have been entirely a waste).

When Chris asked me to write about why the world is such a mess if an all-knowing, all-powerful, and all-loving God is in control, I instinctively went back to Genesis to re-read the stories of the creation and fall of man. I believe the answer is there, and that it’s simpler than we want to think, I just don’t think we talk about it much outside of the realm of a college-level philosophy course.

“Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.”

Does this sound at all like the exercise you did a minute ago? It should. I wanted you to think more deeply about what it must have been like before God began his masterpiece, because I think that verse has some pretty heavy implications if we think about it in light of the proceeding parts of the story. Additionally, as Genesis goes on to recount the story of creation, I think some pretty important parts of God’s character are revealed.

From the darkness, God adds a light to provide a contrast between the two. “God saw that the light was good, and separated the light from the darkness.”

God took the formless, endless body of water and gave it shape. God made a distinction between water, and not water (sky). He then brought dry ground up from within the water, further defining the water from the sky and land. “God called the dry ground “land,” and the gathered waters he called “seas.” And God saw that it was good.

Again later, God further distinguishes light from dark, and night from day, and when each would cover the earth. “Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night…”

All these things, I think, are God creating relativity where there was none before. And, at the risk of sounding horribly cliché, I’ll go on to say that the things we so often see as bad, hurtful, negative, or undesirable can, and should, be accepted as gifts right alongside all the coincidentally good, pleasurable, positive, and desirable things.

Am I saying that we should celebrate when people kill each other, when diseases ravage entire countries, and when seemingly unavoidable accidents hurt us at the worst of times? Absolutely not! I would never in a million years assert that we should kid ourselves into believing that the pain we experience isn’t real; or worse yet, that it’s unfounded and easily manipulable with some new age mind trickery garbage. However, I believe it’s entirely possible to experience pain in life, and at the same time, accept that it’s an inevitable part of life on Earth without blaming others, or God.

In Finding Darwin’s God, Kenneth Miller gives an excellent reconciliation of God’s goodness in light of the existence of the mess we’ve made on Earth:

“Can God be good when there is evil, even murder, in the living world? Of course He can. To religious people, God is the embodiment of good. Why, then, does He allow evil to exist? How could a kind and loving God allow a father to murder his child? How could He permit the carnage of war, the terror of natural disaster, the inhuman agony of famine and disease? He allows such things because He made us material creatures, dependent upon the physical world for existence. In such a world, the destruction of one form of life comes about as natural a consequence as the existence of another. We are connected to the natural world. We are born in pain, we struggle for our food and drink and shelter, we age, and eventually we die. He allows such things as a consequence of the gift of human freedom. The ability to do good means nothing without the freedom to do evil. In a world of individuals, some will always choose the latter, and their actions form an unfortunate backdrop to which the moral choices of virtue, charity, and honesty stand in contrast.”

Evil sucks, there’s no way around that. It’s never easy to standby and wonder, “God, where are you!?” But, as Kenneth brilliantly put it, those things provide us a “backdrop” against which we can see a contrast of the goodness that manages to permeate all the evil. God hasn’t forced us to see his goodness all the time; instead, He put us in a world that gives us the option to.

I’ll leave you with this. It’s a common verse, but I’d like you to think about it in a new way:

“Consider it pure joy, my brothers, when you face trials of many kinds.”

Considering trials pure joy isn’t to jump around gleefully when you’re staring evil straight in the eye. It goes to say that we should think carefully about, contemplate, and reflect on our trials. And that, after the dust has settled, when we are allowed to carefully think about how God is allowing us to experience this trial in order to develop perseverance, we are free to be joyful, knowing that God is using it to help make us mature and complete, not lacking anything.

Post by: Luke Brown
Luke earned his Bachelor’s Degree in Technical Writing from Iowa State University in Ames. Currently employed by Nationwide Insurance, he has contributed to publications such as the Immersion Blog and Veritas Mag. A talented musician, Luke serves regularly at Lutheran Church of Hope in West Des Moines, where he plays multiple instruments. Luke is recently engaged and plans to marry his fiance, Tere, this summer.

I’m a pretty avid reader of the magazine Relevant, a Christian publication with stories that highlight stories of faith, but also bits about music, movies, and generally cool stuff (even non-Christian cool stuff, of which there is plenty). The most recent issue, which is marked as May_June 19, featured a story about career adventure guy Bear Grylls, star of Discovery Channel’s “Man vs. Wild” and the 6-part series “Worst-Case Scenario”. Bear is well known for his death-defying acts of survival and general manliness. What isn’t as well known about him is the fact that he’s a man of God and played a role in founding the Alpha Course, a 10-week “basics of faith” class that churches are now using world-wide. The article tells the story of Grylls childlike nature that pulls him into his adventures.

Simple, yet profound. For Bear Grylls, it’s not too complicated. As a child, Bear’s understood faith to be a very simple thing. He says it was natural; knew that God existed and that God was his friend and that was easy enough. But as he grew up he learned that faith didn’t actually work that way and the picture lost its color and eventually faded altogether.

Does Bear’s story sound anything like your story? I can tell you, it certainly sounds like mine. A lot of people can tell you about the moment they were “saved” (their language not mine), but I’m not one of them. For me, God has always been a part of the picture. I’ve got my parents (who I think read this blog) to thank for that! And when I was young, it was simple. Jesus died for my sins and because of that I was going to heaven. And honestly, that was enough, even through high school. But then I got to college and the picture changed some. Thanks to some excellent professors, I was challenged… in a big way. Almost all of things I thought I knew about being a Christian got put through the ringer. Makes me think that line from “Fight Club”… “You know you who you are? You have no idea.” At the time it was easy to get annoyed, and even down right upset, with those professors. I had a simple faith that answered all the questions sufficiently (yep, used that word on purpose) and that was all I really needed or wanted. How dare these people that I barely know question the faith that I’ve always had! Who did this people think they were exactly???

But now I get it. Through that grab-bag of intellectual and emotional experiences, I’ve learned a lot about myself and God. I learned to ask questions that I’d never thought to ask and learned new ways to think about the answers. And I’m still learning everyday.

Christianity has a rich tradition of asking questions and challenging everything we thought we knew. It’s happened countless times throughout the history of the faith. Bear Grylls understands faith to be simple, and he’s not wrong. At its core, when we get down to basics, it’s all about God loving us. But we can’t use that as an excuse not to think and ask big questions of a big God. As Rob Bell wrote in Velvet Elvis: Repainting the Christian Faith:

It’s the spirit of people like Rob Bell, Stanley Haurwas, Karl Barth, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Martin Luther, and countless others that drives this series I am starting today. For the next 9 weeks here at chrispetrick.com, we’re going to explore together some of the big questions of faith and Christianity. You’ll read some essays by people close to me who have influenced my faith journey and asked some very critical questions of their own. If you’re looking for all the answers, you won’t find them here. If you’re looking for a bunch of people telling that you’re wrong and they’re right, well you won’t find that here either. If you are looking for a group of people who are doing their best to follow this Jesus person, then you are in the right place. My goal here on this blog has always been to contribute to the on-going conversation, and for the next several weeks I’ve invited other voices to chime in. Some of these voices are pastors, but most are not. Some have gone to seminary, but most haven’t. Each and every one of them has asked tough questions and taken the steps necessary to try and find the answers. I’m going to kick things off with a paragraph that introduced Rob Bell’s book:

I hope that you’ll join us for this journey.

I have yet another confession to make: I’m bad at quiet time. Spend more than 15 minutes in any church or vaguely church-related thing and I’d be willing to lay a five-spot that someone is going to give you a speech on the importance of “quiet time with God”. And if you’re anything like me, that meant you grabbed a Bible, went and sequestered yourself somewhere, and essentially waited for God to say something… And waited… and waited… and waited. Eventually you got hungry, thirsty, bored, or got a text from a friend and quiet time effectively ended. Well, there’s always tomorrow.

For a long time I was doing this just because I was told I was supposed. It somehow came with the whole Christianity thing, I had to spend quiet time with God. I didn’t like this for several reasons:

Eventually I just stopped doing quiet time altogether. If God wants to say something to me, let him do it while I’m eating a sandwich or, better yet, while I’m sleeping. He spoke to people in dreams all the time in the Bible, didn’t he?

Here’s a question: how do you expect to hear and see God in your life?

One of the things we do as church people is we use the Bible as a source of authority. Nothing wrong with that at all. But we tend to highlight all of the big, flashy ways God spoke to people. Moses and the burning bush, the angels appearing to the Mary and the shepherds, God coming down from the heavens like a dove, and so on. So what conclusion could we draw other than: when God speaks, I’ll know it! So we go through life as we do, all the while anticipating a burning bush of our own. And one day we stop and look around and realize that he hasn’t shown up… at least not in the way we anticipated.

Here’s the kicker: some of are waiting for a God that never showed up.

We said the prayers, sang the songs, and took a solid 30 minutes for quiet time everyday and still nothing. God did not come down to tell us where to go and what to do, much less give us the ability to part seas and turn our walking sticks into snakes… Okay no one really carries a walking stick anymore, but you get my point. Let’s go a little deeper: maybe you didn’t get that job. Maybe you prayed for that girl or that guy to notice you and s/he never did. Maybe you prayed for that relative or friend to miraculously healed and they died anyway. And the only conclusion you can reach is: God didn’t show up.

We have to understand how ridiculous it was for John to ask, “Are you the one? Or should we look for another?” John knew Jesus, he had always known Jesus. There had never been a doubt in John’s mind that this was the one, the true Son of God, the Messiah. He had dedicated his entire life to following this Jesus and even found himself in prison because of it. And it is in prison, in the face of certain death, that John wavers. Are you the one?

And Jesus’ answer to John is an answer for us too. “Yes John, I am the Messiah and yes, I am the one leaving you in prison to die.” To John in his situation, God “showing up” meant that Jesus would come and rescue him from his fate. But that wasn’t in the cards. God showed up, he always does, just not always in the way we expect.

Remember the question I asked earlier? How do you expect to hear and see God in your life? John expected to see him at the prison door, setting him free. But that wasn’t what happened. I have no doubt that there are countless stories we could share about all those times we expected God in a certain way and he showed up completely differently.

Remember the story of the Road to Emmaus? The risen Christ walks with them, eats with them, talks with them, but it’s only after he’s gone that they realize who he was. What that says to me is this: God is all around us, we just fail to recognize it.

The other night at worship band rehearsal I had my band try something a little different for our devotional time. I played a song by The Album Leaf (great stuff) for them and invited them to close their eyes and allow God to speak to them through the music. There were nine of us in the room and everyone came up with something different. One person saw the devastation of Parkersburg, an Iowa town ravaged by a tornado last year, and saw everything put back together around her. She saw, as she put it, restoration. Another saw a bride coming down the aisle and was overwhelemed with a sense of hope. Another shared that he and his wife, for medical reasons, were forced to terminate a pregnancy. Through the song he heard God saying, “everything is going to be all right.” What’s fascinating is that the song is five and half minutes of instrumental music. Not a single word was spoken, but much was heard.

One of the things we as a church should focus on isn’t so much the recognition of the big signs from God in our lives. Believe me, if God chooses to speak to you in that way, you’ll know. As Donald Miller put it in his blog:

When big things happen you’ll know, that’s what makes them big things. What we as people who follow this risen Jesus need to learn to do is atune ourselves to hear and see all of the not-so-obvious ways God is speaking to us.

Can you hear?