Who's in Charge Here?

(One of the blessings God has given me is the privilege to write a weekly column for our local paper, The Outer Banks Sentinel. Here's what will be there Sunday.)

Often when life seems to be totally hectic, unpredictable and totally out of my control, I’ll think, “I’m having ‘one of those’ weeks”. Usually it’s when the little things start piling up, and whatever calendar I’ve penciled in can be tossed in file 13. What tends to get me frustrated is my own idea that my life is to be lived according to my dictates, without interruption.

How big I think I am. People who know me know that I’m a take charge guy. After all, somebody’s got to be. I’m a type A. But I’m also learning that some things are beyond my charge; out of my control. And that’s OK.

One of the interesting names God reveals for Himself is the name He shared with Moses as He directed this man with zero self-esteem – a man who had lived in royalty, fled his home a wanted man and was at the time living in no-man’s land tending sheep at 80 years old – to step up to the plate and free a captive nation from slavery. “They’ll want to know Your name. Who do I tell them is sending me on this mission impossible?” (Keep in mind Moses was conversing with a burning bush.)

God said His name was “I AM”. Now there’s an all-encompassing name. There’s a name that exudes an aura of exclusivity. “I AM, not you. “I AM, you are not.” “I AM, so you stop trying to be.”

This past week has not been “one of those weeks”. It has been a once in a lifetime week for my family. We have seen miracles happen before our eyes – things totally out of our control and out of the control of those surrounding us. Our emotions have been strapped in to the seat of the Apollo’s Chariot of life as we wondered, feared and rejoiced only to wonder, fear and rejoice again.

Here’s something I discovered. God is bigger than anything life can throw at us. The enormity of the trial we faced last week was matched by His enormity. In so many ways He assured us that although things were out of our control, they were not out of His.

Not only that, the great I AM also showed us the power generated when His people pray. Most of my week, it seems, has been spent reading hundreds of notes, mostly from people I’ve never met telling us that they are praying. Primarily through the relatively new medium of a blog, they have reached out to God and to us by the tens of thousands from around the world. I know that because our blogs have counters telling us how many hits we’ve received. And it seems the world has turned its attention to a family from Nags Head.

It’s been a God thing – something I could have never imagined. Just as He proved Himself to Moses, a nation of Hebrew slaves and a world power Egyptian empire, He continues to prove Himself to me and many others today. He can do what we think is impossible. He is in control. He is still “I AM”.

As I write this I’m sitting in a little waiting room at Duke University Medical Center. I’m no more than 15 feet, separated by a hall and a wall, from my daughter-in-law who is clinging to life. Three floors below me in the intensive care nursery is my two day old granddaughter, born just shy of 25 weeks and presently weighing in at 1lb. 5 oz. That’s not a typo. We have seen and continue to see the hand of “I AM” take charge. It’s been an awesome sight to behold.

If you would like to know more about the miracles happening in our family, please visit the following blog: http://www.cfhusband.blogspot.com/. See if you aren’t equally amazed.


©2008 Rick Lawrenson