Janet and I continue to be amazed by the outpouring of love and encouragement that we have experienced during Janet’s recovery from lumbar spine surgery. Surgery was just over a week ago and, to be sure, progress has been slow. We expected things to be a little slow to heal because we are older, but surgery went better than we expected. It was the recovery part of the experience that has been much more challenging. We knew that it will take as long as several years for Janet to totally recover and find a new normal but there will be steps along the way that give us hope.
Prior to the surgery we were amazed by the number of people who voiced a desire to pray for us throughout this entire ordeal. It wasn’t just a few people here and there – we must have an army of prayer warriors who were, and are, with us in spirit every step of the way. There are folks who are members of groups that we belong to who have contacted their own churches and enlisted the full power of the local church to participate in prayers to hasten Janet’s recovery.
Our own church staff and Bible study have similarly been praying for us since prior to the surgery. Friends from across the nation have written or texted us for updates to see specifically how they can pray for a quick and full recovery. We are getting messages from people who are friends of friends – and they are praying for us as well. It is remarkable and even difficult to fathom the reach of the community of believers who are in our corner. In fact, both Janet and I have remarked that this is the strongest support that we can ever remember from brothers and sisters in Christ – even if we don’t personally know them.
I can’t help but be reminded of one of most impactful verses my classmates and I had to translate from the Greek while we were in seminary. Peter wrote his first epistle to discuss the subject of suffering. It was around the time of Nero, who hated Christians. In fact, he impaled them on spikes, dipped them in hot tar and then set them on fire to light his palace gardens at night. Peter went on tell his followers that some of them would be called upon to suffer, others would walk beside those who were in the process of suffering – and still others would provide prayer support. So each member of the community had a role to play during this time of Christian persecution.
Peter uses words such as harmony and sympathetic. Sympathy is a very interesting word in the Greek. It is made up of two smaller words. “Sym” means “the same” and “pathos” means “emotion” or “feeling”, “experience” or “passion.” So sympathy means “same feeling” and was meant to teach his community that as Christians, we are to be so intertwined with other believers that we are to experience what they are experiencing. The group of believers is to act in unity. When one of us suffers, others are to be so involved that they experience the same emotion. Likewise, when one of us celebrates, we are all to celebrate. So imagine that we are all of the same DNA – sharing with each other on a level that seems incomprehensible to us today.
But Janet and I have experienced this kind of love and brotherhood before and after her surgery. The thing we keep thinking about is that if this is truly happening in our earthly lives, what will heaven be like! It seems totally beyond our ability to even fathom the love and unity that will be in our heavenly home. A friend of ours who has recently also had surgery had similar observations about the outpouring of love that he has received.
The verse for tonight is Peter’s admonition to his community that they must go beyond caring to an ultimate form of love and unity during very trying times. Peter tells us, in 1 Peter 3:8, “Finally, all of you, live in harmony with one another; be sympathetic, love as brothers, be compassionate and humble.” I truly never thought that Janet and I would experience this complete outpouring of love – but we are!
My encouragement this evening is that God expects us to love one another the way that He has loved us. In fact, Jesus tells us that as God has loved Jesus, so Jesus has loved us. That’s a tall order, isn’t it? But that’s what we are to strive to do. My prayer is that every believer will experience the kind of support and encouragement that we have received during this unbelievable ordeal. Thanks for being brothers and sisters in Christ. Have a great day in the Lord, grace and peace…