Is It Well?

Is it Well?

Apr 29, 2012

Intro:

Crisis has a distilling effect. In the midst of one, or many, all the routine, boring, petty things of life get hastily shoved to the side and the focus becomes intense. What do we have to do right now? What is important in this moment? What will happen in the next 4 hours, 8 hours, or 12 hours? In the midst of a crisis, things like sleep or getting groceries or watching a favorite TV show disappear off our agendas, and we just do what we must in this moment.

If it is medical, we drive the friend and her sick child to the hospital. And if we have to wait 8hrs in Emergency with them, we wait 8hrs in Emergency, and when we go to Tim Horton’s to grab a bit of food and come back and the friend says oh thanks, how much do I owe you? we respond with don’t be ridiculous.

If it is a friend or family member who calls with a genuine need, we drop what we are doing and rush to their side to be with them, sometimes even if they are halfway across the country. Years ago, my wife Joanne had to go to the hospital at about 1a.m. I made 3 phone calls: the ambulance, Lisa Thomson our regular babysitter to come and stay with Thomas who was about 3yrs old and was fast asleep, and Joanne’s mom and dad who drove through the night from Calgary so they could be there when Thomas woke up and could help us out in the next few days to come. None of them hesitated, complained, or griped. In fact I know they were glad they could come and help us.

What if your teenager is out for the evening and calls you because they are drunk and don’t want to drive your car home? We go pick them up, and deal with the rest of the issues later. Or what if your sister, who never does anything like this, phones collect from her holiday in Mexico where her purse was just stolen and asks if you could send $200 so she can get back to the city and deal with the proper authorities? We say, just tell me what the easiest way to get it to you is.

Crisis have a way of revealing what really matters most, of distilling our lives down to what really matters most. And those tell us some pretty important, sometimes pretty uncomfortable, things about what we love most.

2 Kings 4 (NLT):

8 One day Elisha went to the town of Shunem. A wealthy woman lived there, and she urged him to come to her home for a meal. After that, whenever he passed that way, he would stop there for something to eat.

9 She said to her husband, I am sure this man who stops in from time to time is a holy man of God. 10 Let’s build a small room for him on the roof and furnish it with a bed, a table, a chair, and a lamp. Then he will have a place to stay whenever he comes by.

11 One day Elisha returned to Shunem, and he went up to this upper room to rest. 12 He said to his servant Gehazi, Tell the woman from Shunem I want to speak to her. When she appeared, 13 Elisha said to Gehazi, Tell her we appreciate the kind concern you have shown us. What can we do for you? Can we put in a good word for you to the king or to the commander of the army?’

No, she replied, my family takes good care of me.

Gehazi replied, She doesn’t have a son, and her husband is an old man.

15 Call her back again, Elisha told him. When the woman returned, Elisha said to her as she stood in the doorway, 16 Next year at this time you will be holding a son in your arms!

No, my lord! she cried. O man of God, don’t deceive me and get my hopes up like that.

17 But sure enough, the woman soon became pregnant. And at that time the following year she had a son, just as Elisha had said.

18 One day when her child was older, he went out to help his father, who was working with the harvesters. 19 Suddenly he cried out, My head hurts! My head hurts!

His father said to one of the servants, Carry him home to his mother.

20 So the servant took him home, and his mother held him on her lap. But around noontime he died. 21 She carried him up and laid him on the bed of the man of God, then shut the door and left him there. 22 She sent a message to her husband: Send one of the servants and a donkey so that I can hurry to the man of God and come right back.