- Sometimes we struggle, wondering what God is up to. We question His timing. We wonder if He really as omniscient as our theology maintains.
What God does, and when He does it, can be frustrating at times. But, as the biblical witness and the old song goes, we are called to “trust and obey.”
Last weekend we celebrated our daughter’s wedding, which means that a good portion my immediate family was in town. Several of us had the opportunity to hear my son Elijah preach at his church on Sunday. In that sermon, in front of parents, uncles, aunts and cousins he recounted an important truth and a difficult episode in our family history.
In his young adulthood, with a wife and three kids depending on him, my dad developed a brain abscess. He landed in our state’s premier hospital, where doctors excised the diseased tissue. In the process, they discovered that the front part of skull was also infected and had to be temporarily removed, with a metal plate inserted to protect his brain in the interim.
It was a harrowing moment for the family. As he lay dying – as far as he could tell – in that hospital, Dad talked to God. Not yet a Christian, he pleaded for his life so that his wife might not be widowed and his children left fatherless.
The surgery was successful, and he was released from the hospital with a metal plate in place until the extracted bone could be decontaminated. But for the next several years, until the skull bone was reinserted, that indentation in his head served as a daily reminder of his deal with God.
God saved him, but a lack of medical insurance meant that we bordered on poverty growing up, even as two more children were added to the family. Both my parents had come from relative affluence, so this ordeal and the aftermath weighed on them for years. We children really didn’t think about it at the time; but looking back, food was sometimes scarce. We often ate white rice with sugar and a little milk at the end of the month (which I was convinced was a real treat!) We were enrolled in the free lunch program at school even as Dad served on the school board. Paying off the health care debt created a monthly budget crunch that created continuous family tension and wasn’t overcome for a couple of decades.
My older brother, recounting all of this to our family at a recent reunion, said this event marked us as a family and largely defined what a Friedeman was. First, he said, we are cheap. Money was scarce for many years, so we figure out how to manage it and get along without debt. And second, we are Christian. Mom followed Dad’s lead in committing her life to Christ, and so have the children.
Due to a death-defying, financially-distressing, anxiety-producing event with decadal impact — the fact that we are cheap and Christian is now impacting generations.
Son Elijah noted in his sermon that because of this episode that brought his grandpa to faith, the gospel has been preached on multiple continents, disciples have been made worldwide, churches have been planted, mission boards have been served; and Christian children, grandchildren and great grandchildren dot the nation.
Sometimes we struggle, wondering what God is up to. We question His timing. We wonder if He really as omniscient as our theology maintains.
As the song reminds us: “Trust and obey. There is no other way.”
Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths” (Proverbs 3:5-6).
Matt Friedeman
