A Life Monitor

When my wife was in labor with our first born, I had very little to do. My job was to be the support while my wife went through the most horrific pain she had ever experienced. Not really a fair trade, but it wasn't like I could have the baby, despite the wishes of 5 out of 5 American women.

One of the ways I tried to help was to read the monitor on the side of her bed that tracked her contractions. I would watch until it peaked, telling her to hold on and hang in there, then when the intensity of the contraction began to fade, I told her the worst was over for now.

I thought about this last week while I was huffing and puffing on the stair-stepper watching the seconds click down until I could advance to a less strenuous level. Twenty seconds seems like an hour when you feel like you could faint.

Don't you wish life had a monitor like that at the side of your bed or beside your computer at work? Like you could look at a scale and see that it’s not going to get any worse than it is right now and that tomorrow you’ll be feeling much better.

I reflected on Psalm 23 in light of this. It starts out beautiful...green pastures, still waters, restored soul. So peaceful. Then it moves into the valley of the shadow of death. YIKES. Sounds tough. But it quickly rebounds to being guided and comforted by His rod and staff, preparing a banquet, being anointed with oil, and having goodness and joy following you all the days of your life. What a way to end a story.

Life isn’t so much about mountains and valleys, as it is about a roller coaster ride where you’re holding on for dear life. At times it’s thrilling, other times it’s downright frightening. So how do we endure to the end of the story?

Paul's thought was, keep fixed on Jesus, His life, His testimony. “I have learned to be content in all things,” Paul said, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” What if our lens to life was Christ? What if we remembered that often times, some of the best gifts come after the most difficult of circumstances (i.e. labor brings baby/life, working out brings health benefits)? What if we accepted the truth of the Bible over how we’re feeling right now? What if we could always remember that no matter how bad our circumstances get, that our days here on earth are but a blink of an eye and what happens next is our forever (teach us to number our days, O Lord, that we may gain a heart of wisdom…Psalm 90: 12)?

I don’t know where you’re at today on Life’s Monitor. I don’t know if you’re at the top of the pain peak and life seems to be too much to handle, or if you’re so relaxed and calm that you’re not even registering on the scale. Either way, we are all in need of the prayer and support and encouragement of this community, and we are all in need Jesus. Students need God. Faculty & Staff need God. Administrators need God. And by praying for each other, lending an ear, encouraging one another, we bring Jesus to life to a world in need. We are His hands, His feet.

I pray that you would endure and I hope that all of us would pray regularly for this campus that we would all persevere and endure, drawing ever so much closer to our Savior until He comes to take us home. May God bless you and keep you this week!