Orchestrated Opportunities

Happy New Year!!! and with the new year comes a new section of my blog. Every so often I want to bring a guest blogger to Attraversiamo. My Dad, Earl Cheek, has happily become my first guest writer. The following is an email he sent out to family and friends concerning my parents spiritual health as they work through my Mom's (Louise) second round of skin cancer. In a rough time of year for my family, this letter really lifted my spirits and gave me a new view on the events that God brings into my life. I hope that it does the same for you.

Dear Family,

I'm sorry for the delay.  I was anticipating my sitting here 24 hours ago. But it just wasn't to be.  I've just spent some time recording the chain of events that included a couple of doctor appointments last Friday and what happened yesterday surrounding Louise's surgery. And, I will summarize that before I close this email, but I've realized that these events aren't about a tragedy that's befallen our family.  It's not about what's happening to us physically, she being scarred and my being warn to a frazzle.  It's just like every other event in our lives.  The Lord orchestrates all of them to be opportunities.  For a long time I considered them to be tests, to see whether I match up to the expected "good christian standard", but with a test you either pass or your fail.  A test is all about what we do; whether we can succeed or not.  Opportunities on the other hand are about what we can gain.  They have more to do with our internal perspective than with our exterior physicality.  Both Louise and I have issues that we don't recognize as wrong perspectives.  We want our paths to follow the course that we've set.  The Lord on the other hand has different paths that He wants us to follow.  The real issue is that we have to "BE" different people than who we are now to walk His paths.  There's only one way for us to 'BECOME" who we need to be and that's for the Lord to change us "FROM THE INSIDE OUT".  The reality is for that to happen we have to walk through the events that He knows will give us opportunities for those changes to be made.  That can be scary!  That can be emotional!!  That can be heart wrenching!!!  I've never really believed that it's "Trust and Obey".  That always denoted too much rational understanding on our part.  In my life it usually seem to be "Trust and Hang On".  Even if you don't enjoy the ride (and that's really where "Perspective" come in) you can at least believe that it's all for your best interest, close your eyes and hang on.  The only reason to believe is because you know in whom you believe.  It's coming out the other side of those scary events and seeing how He preserved you through them, that makes the change happen "from the inside out".  It deepens your communication with Him and prepares you for the next opportunity.

I'm giving up my insistence on having a couple of my most treasured activities, skiing with my kids and playing with my first grandchild, Emily June Cheek (June Bug).  Both things can, Lord willing, happen again at a later date, but both haven't happened for long enough that it is time, that they should happen NOW.  My perspective is changing.  He will provide all good things in His time.  If I haven't already, I will come to that understanding.  Louise is giving up her insistence on what she looks like.  She does not look the same as she did a couple of weeks ago.  That will change, but whether it changes back to the way she saw herself, is still an unknown.  Her perspective is changing.  Still as I said in my earlier email, the Lord is creating a beauty in her that no surgery can change.  That's why we all love her so much.

So join us in our learning opportunities.  Give up what you can never keep and hang on to what you can never loose.

In Him,       Earl