Struck by Thunder

In that silly Disney kid’s movie ‘Snow Dogs’, where Florida dentist Cuba Gooding Jr. goes to Alaska, there is a line in it about tough, grizzled James Coburn being the only man who was ever ‘struck by thunder’. A storm rolled through in the evening a few nights ago, and we felt like we were nearly struck by thunder. One of the thunder claps was louder and more powerful that anything that we have ever experienced. It gave us a better understanding of what it must have been like for the Israelites when Moses was on the mountain with God!

Aside for the storm, the week’s excitement was when Adam preached at church last Sunday. As I mentioned last week, our pastor felt that God was telling him that Adam should be a teacher and invited him to speak the next Sunday. Adam is obviously very busy with work all week, so he wrestled with the decision of whether or not to accept the invitation. After about two days, he knew that he was running from it, and God led him- appropriately- to teach out of Jonah. He also focused on prayer and how we should reflect on how much time we spend with God. I love the book of Jonah because of Jonah’s humanness, like how he was so mad about God not killing the Ninevites that he wanted to die himself. I’ve wrestled with God about things myself, particularly about spending so much time cooped up in the apartment here, and said things to God like ‘This is so stupid!! What a waste of time!!’ In my bitterness, I’ve also found myself, particularly early on here, not praying that much because of my bitterness. The part that Adam touched on that really affected me was how Jonah was in the belly of the fish for THREE DAYS before he prayed! I never realized that. I’m sure everyone knows that he was in the belly for three days, but I never observed that he waited that long to actually pray. When he finally did, God had the fish spit him out.

How many of us are more like Jonah than we want to admit? As human beings, our tendency is to do things under our own power and turn to God as our last resort. There are times when God will deliver us from our troubles quickly when we turn to Him, like Jonah at that point, but I’m finding that it’s the times when my will does not align itself with God’s, or that He is taking way too long in my opinion to answer the prayer in the way that I want, that I have trouble continuing to pray and seek His will. Strangely, I didn’t really have that problem in America, even through some really tough stuff. Maybe that’s one of the reasons that God is taking me through this again here- in America, I can go meet with a friend or pick up the phone and get immediate support. Here, the feeling of isolation is often overwhelming, and I see that God is really the only one that I should need to turn to. That’s not to minimize the importance of fellowship, of course, but maybe it has been a heart issue for me and this apartment is my fish belly!

Overall, Adam did quite well for it being his first real sermon. The Swiss family said they were touched by it and couldn’t believe it was his first time teaching. This couple also had two other couples with them that week visiting from Switzerland, which, as we joked, increased the congregation by 40%! They spoke German and knew only a few English words, so it took some of the pressure off of Adam. Adam was also blessed by the in-depth study that he had to do in preparation for the sermon. He said that he will never listen to a sermon the same way again!