To continue with Yancey’s post on seasons of life, this weekend didn’t quite go as planned and our season of life smacked me right in the face. As a father of 5 and a sales rep who already drives a lot over the road, I admit I’m not a huge fan of driving all over the place when I am home. But this is the season of our life: where all of our kids have activities making family planning really tough & typically revolves around running people everywhere. This weekend was supposed to be a good family weekend with my oldest son Seth before he heads back to school after spring break. We still had family time but it was rushed with all the activites. Seth had a good attitude, but I will admit my frustration was starting to build.

My focus was wrong as it was on MY expectations and my circumstances versus leaning on the Lord and being a fluid servant leader. The Lord addressed this in multiple ways:

James 1:2-5:2Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, a whenever you face trials of many kinds,3because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. 4Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. 5If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. 

Then my Dad came over for a visit. My Dad is 75 and was diagnosed recently with prostate cancer. Thankfully they caught it early, but he still has to go through radiation for 8 weeks starting today. 5 days a week for 8 weeks. Was my Dad frustrated, downcast, worried, upset? No. My Dad knows its in the Lord’s hands and the Lord will get him through it one way or the other.

One thing I have learned with my Dad, he is the stereo typical little guy you do not want to underestimate. He is my height at 5’6″. He is not heavy or skinny. He is a lover and a fighter and one of the toughest guys I know having gone through not 1 but 2 heart valve replacement surgeries, and hernia surgeries. Yet at 75 he still loves to bowl and golf.

This Saturday he and I just talked. And I was so thankful for our conversation and his attitude. I love my Dad and I ask for your prayers that his radiation therapy goes without any issues or side affects. Pray that He has his eyes fixed on the Lord still and not his circumstances.

Which is when the Lord brought this verse to my mind this morning after I reflected over the weekend. It is the passage in Hebrews right after chapter 11 (which is often called the Hall of Faith for all the broken OT heros named who lived by faith). It is also a reminder of what Jesus faced during this season as He approached the cross.

Hebrews 12:1-3: 1Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, 2fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

Men let us all fix our eyes on Jesus rather than our expectations and circumstances. We know the war was already won by what Jesus did by living in perfect obedience to the Father and laying his life down on the cross, then being raised to life to conquer sin and death and providing the opportunity for us for eternal life through adoption as sons, His coheirs; children of God. If we focus on Jesus and clothe ourselves in His character and who we are and what we have in Christ, the trials of this life will seem a whole lot less daunting and our attitudes will shine the light of Christ to those around us. I am preaching this to myself as much as to anyone else as it is something I need to remind myself everyday.