Dana's Christian Journey

musings of a thankful cancer survivor

Author: Dana

  • chapel

    —

    Dana

    I think God enjoys revealing His presence in our daily lives. A timely song on the radio, an unexpected encounter, a phone call at just the right moment, a Scripture that speaks to an exact situation… I probably miss more of God’s activity than I recognize.

    In the home of our new friends in Nazareth, Susan volunteered me to speak in chapel where our host served as school chaplain. “What do I say, Lord?” I silently prayed as Mrs. Haddad agreed to Susan’s offering.

    img_7944It looked like the opportunity would pass me by as our friend Hunter picked us up a little late the next morning and we got stuck in the busy traffic of Jesus’ hometown. As we entered the auditorium and sat on the back row, Mrs. Haddad was speaking to a couple of hundred middle school students. I had no idea what she was saying as Arabic was the language spoken, but at the conclusion of the talk she led a familiar song in English.

    Good Good Father was written by Pat Barrett, who grew up and attended a high school not far from our house. Chris Tomlin recorded the song and many listeners have taken comfort in the important message we all need to hear: And I’m loved by You…

    I’ve heard a thousand stories of what they think You’re like
    But I’ve heard the tender whispers of love in the dead of night
    And You tell me that You’re pleased
    And that I’m never alone

    You’re a good good Father
    It’s who You are, it’s who You are, it’s who You are
    And I’m loved by You
    It’s who I am, it’s who I am, it’s who I am

    I’ve seen many searching for answers far and wide
    But I know we’re all searching
    For answers only You provide
    ‘Cause You know just what we need
    Before we say a word

    You’re a good good Father
    It’s who You are, it’s who You are, it’s who You are
    And I’m loved by You
    It’s who I am, it’s who I am, it’s who I am

    Because You are perfect in all of Your ways
    You are perfect in all of Your ways
    You are perfect in all of Your ways to us

    Hunter leaned toward me and whispered, “I taught them this song last school year.” I really thought chapel was over, but Mrs. Haddad announced she wanted their friend Hunter to introduce someone from America who wanted to share a brief message. As we walked down the aisle, I couldn’t help but smile… realizing the two stories I planned to tell reflected the song we had just sung.

    “We have a good, good Father! The first time we visited your country, my son was your age. We went to the Sea of Galilee (they call it Lake Tiberius) and he saw a boy fishing from the shore with his father. ‘Dad, I want to catch a fish,’ Taylor said as he pointed. ‘Go ask the father,’ I replied. My son, who is twenty years older now and still loves to fish, would have never caught a fish in your country had he not asked a kind father… who extended his pole and watched a young foreigner pull in a catch. Our good Father wants us to ask.”

    Mrs. Haddad translated and the students smiled – kids everywhere love stories. I’ve written about the second fish story I told… which contains a message of faith. Our good Father desires young and old to truly believe in His Son. He is perfect in all of His ways…

    “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and the one who knocks, the door will be opened… If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask Him!” Matthew 7:7-11

    “Then they asked Him, ‘What must we do to do the works God requires?’ Jesus answered, ‘The work of God is this: to believe in the One He has sent.’” John 6:28-29

    Good, Good Father ©2014 worshiptogether.com songs

  • seed

    —

    Dana

    Friends from Tennessee are coming to visit and attend an Atlanta Braves baseball game this weekend. With the three young Woodwards and the three Davis kids being close to the same age, we have gotten together every summer for years. As the children got older, the visits were less frequent, but we always picked up where we left off with friendship and fun.

    Timmy Woodward was one of my best friends in college. Four or five of us played on the same intramural sports team each season. We also competed against each other constantly… including playing cards almost every night. When I think of college, these are my memories. Though none of us would admit it, we all knew Timmy was the best at everything… and the funniest guy we knew. Post college, Timmy became the best husband and father… while keeping his sense of humor.

    On July 29, 2019, without warning, Timmy had a heart attack in a suburb of Nashville, an hour’s drive from his home in Smithville. Paramedics arrived within five minutes and started CPR, but it did no good. Timmy died 43 days before his 60th birthday.

    In Life of the Beloved, Henri Nouwen explains that as God’s children we bless others in life AND in death. He writes:

    We may be little, insignificant servants in the eyes of a world motivated by efficiency, control, and success. But when we realize that God has chosen us from all eternity, sent us into the world as the blessed ones, handed us over to suffering, can’t we, then, also trust that our little lives will multiply themselves and be able to fulfill the needs of countless people? This might sound pompous and self-aggrandizing, but, in truth, the trust in one’s fruitfulness emerges from a humble spirit. It is the humble spirit of Hannah who exclaimed in gratitude for the new life born in her: ‘My spirit exults in God my savior – he has looked upon his lowly handmaid – and done great things for me… from this day forward all generations will call me blessed.’

    The fruitfulness of our little life, once we recognize it and live it as the life of the Beloved, is beyond anything we ourselves can imagine. One of the greatest acts of faith is to believe that the few years we live on earth are like a little seed planted in a very rich soil. For this seed to bear fruit, it must die. We often see or feel only the dying, but the harvest will be abundant even when we ourselves are not the harvesters.

    How different would our life be were we truly able to trust that it multiplied in being given away! How different would our life be if we could but believe that every little act of faithfulness, every gesture of love, every word of forgiveness, every little bit of joy and peace will multiply and multiply as long as there are people to receive it…

    img_1400We’ll all be constantly thinking of Timmy as our families reunite this weekend, but his life lives on. Printed on the announcement issued at the funeral home was a handwritten note found in Timmy’s Bible. If we could hear his voice from heaven, he would repeat the same message: “Stay focused! Keep priorities straight! Seek first the kingdom of God!”

    “Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.” John 12:24

    Life of the Beloved by Henri Nouwen; ©1992 The Crossroad Publishing Company, New York, NY; pp 122-123

  • bless

    —

    Dana

    Our friends started calling me Clark Griswold during this past summer’s trip to Israel. Chevy Chase played the character in the old Vacation movies, but surely I’m not in his category…

    It is true though: if you make one or two mistakes along the way, you gain a reputation. Directions are not my strength and quick decisions sometimes get me in trouble. On our second day in Israel, searching for a lunch spot during a drive from Tel Aviv to Caesarea, I made an improper turn that resulted in us going the wrong direction on a one-way curve. Four ladies in the first car we met pointed and yelled unintelligible words as I tried to pull the car as far to the right of the road as possible.

    Unable to retreat, I continued slowly around the curve and met a Barbara Streisand look-alike driving an expensive car. As she braked and started to shout, I lowered my window and mouthed: “I’m sorry…” The kind lady smiled, put her hands together in a prayer-like gesture, bowed her head slightly, and blessed me.

    Thankfully, I found a way off the road… but the damage to my image as a good driver was done. The Wilsons laughed uncontrollably in the back seat, but Susan was not amused. We quickly found a place to eat and I tried to change the subject.

    Why did Jesus teach us to bless rather than curse (even the ones who deserved cursing)? He wants us all to reflect our Father… who constantly blesses. On the road, I was in the wrong and deserved to be reprimanded (or even arrested), but the kind blessing of a stranger administered forgiveness. “I did not come to condemn the world, but to save it,” our humble Savior said.

    In a world full of lawsuits, retaliation, cursing, and violence, Jesus says: “Show the Father. He is patient and kind and full of mercy. Bless those who don’t deserve it; smile at those who scowl; love those who hate; be like the One who can set the prisoners free.”

    “Do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you… Love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because He is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.” Luke 6:27-36

    “Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another before yourselves. Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality. Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.” Romans 12:9-15

  • risk

    —

    Dana

    Eighty years ago, on September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland and World War II began. Last year, I wrote about William Klein, the father of Bobby, one of my good friends growing up. A native of Czechoslovakia, Mr. Klein survived the Holocaust, spending time in the Warsaw Ghetto and in Auschwitz.

    In 1939, the Jewish community made up over thirty percent of Warsaw’s population, but 320,000 died during the war — over ninety percent of the Jews. Despite penalty of execution if caught, an estimated 70,000-90,000 non-Jewish citizens of Warsaw helped hide and rescue their Jewish neighbors. 28,000 targeted people escaped death because others chose to risk everything to resist evil.

    Jan Zabinski and his wife Antonina were two such heroes. Their story is depicted in The Zookeeper’s Wife, a movie filmed in 2017, and based on the 2007 book of the same title written by Diane Ackerman. Diane used the diary of Antonina to tell the story. At the age of 87, Ryszard Zabinski died in Warsaw April 18, 2019. Only seven years old at the outbreak of the war, he helped take food to the hiding strangers on his parents’ property. “Yes, we were risking death but, to me, it was just the natural thing to do. In these times, many people risked their lives.”

    In 1912, most could not understand why a well-known Jewish pediatrician named Henryk Goldszmit retired from his medical career and started an orphanage for boys and girls in Warsaw. Henryk was also an author who used the pen name Janusz Korczak to write books to help parents and teachers prepare children for life.

    When Jews were forced into the Ghetto in 1940, Korczak moved the orphanage inside the district. A man of influence, he had several opportunities to escape but declined them all, choosing instead to remain with his children and help them navigate the ever-increasing persecution. In the tiny section of town where the enemy restricted individual food rations to 181 calories per day, Korczak taught the young to pray like this: “Thank you, Merciful Lord, for having arranged to provide flowers with fragrance, glow worms with their glow, and to make stars in the sky sparkle.”

    In 1942, he accompanied his children to the trains that took innocents to their deaths in Treblinka. Joshua Perle was an eyewitness: “A miracle occurred; two hundred pure souls, condemned to death, did not weep. Not one of them ran away. None tried to hide. Like stricken swallows they clung to their teacher and mentor, to their father and brother, Januzsz Korczak.” The nations of Russia, Poland, and Israel have each honored this man who demonstrated ultimate love.

    Sacrificial love captures the world’s attention. God knows every instance of such love.  Jesus highlighted it when He said, “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for his friends.” (John 14:13) He then called His disciples ‘friends’… and laid down His life for them… and for us. May we follow in His steps.

    “The reason My Father loves Me is that I lay down My life – only to take it up again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of My own accord.” John 10:17-18

    The Zookeeper’s Wife, by Diane Ackerman; ©2007 W. W. Norton, New York; pp 250-260

  • meals

    —

    Dana

    It is funny – we go all around the world and some of the best and lasting memories are meals. The menu is not necessarily the highlight (though good food is always a part), but rather the fellowship and relationships strengthened by sharing life together.

    image001I wrote recently of our walking tour through a small town with our Jewish friend Steve… but we were in the town to have a meal together. Steve went to great lengths to choose a wonderful restaurant with the perfect Mediterranean atmosphere to enjoy fellowship and delicious food with his family and American friends.

    My friend Hunter lived in Nazareth with his family for five years before moving back to Atlanta a year ago. He is a leader in Young Life, an organization who faithfully shares Jesus all over the world. My daughter Karlyn, Nate Cost, and I had the privilege of working with a Young Life Camp in Jericho during the summer of 2012. Hunter has established wonderful relationships with followers of Jesus in Arab, Palestinian, and Jewish communities.

    Hunter happened to be in Nazareth when we visited this past summer and arranged for us to be invited to the home of his good friends the Haddads. Riyadh is a successful architect and his wife Manal is the chaplain of the long-established Nazareth Baptist School. With a large percentage of Muslim students, the school is a shining light for Christ as He is proclaimed while providing excellent education in a highly competitive society.

    Resized_20190529_210430We were welcomed to the Haddad home as Jesus would have been welcomed. We learned the challenges of being an Arab Christian in Israel and we developed a quick admiration of our brothers and sisters in a lesser known section of the Body of Christ. Sitting around the family table after an incredible meal, we marveled at the extravagant hospitality of these beautiful children of God.

    “What do you have planned for tomorrow’s chapel?” one of the children asked their mom. “I don’t have a plan yet,” she replied. “Dana can lead!” Susan volunteered. Sure enough, I was invited to share a bit about our Father in heaven with middle school students the next day. But that’s a story for another time…

    One of Jesus’s last invitations recorded in Scripture was given through the apostle John in his Revelation. Jesus announces the type of intimacy He plans for us to have with the King who humbled Himself and died on the cross. Jesus calls us to be honest and to turn from any sin in our lives so we can have fellowship. The Savior of the world is knocking on our hearts with the intent of enjoying a meal. May we daily open the door.

    “Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest, and repent. Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him and he with Me.” Revelation 3:19-20

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