Tuesday, December 03, 2013

"The New Heart: My heart story" Section 4: Waiting for Diagnosis

I'm developing the second half of my sermon on "My heart story" -

My last post  (Section 3)  - which was about moving from "ignorance" and "denial"  to "acceptance" -   ended with these observations

"We need to come to the same point  of accepting  that   there is "bad news" - denial - blaming and all that stuff  doesn't change the fact  that “I am responsible for my situation”   - it is up to me to do something about it.
And there is good news --  For our physical problem there are (often) health restoring) medical treatments and .....   (more importantly) ....
 
For the  “spiritually broken  hearts”  God has  promised a 'new heart'"
This is a draft of the next section on "Diagnosis" (I may update it as I develop the thought and any comments by readers would be  helpful)
 
Knowing there was a problem and  GOOD NEWS that (potential) treatment was available wasn't enough. The specific problem needed to be diagnosed.

-- 5th   comparison: I took (and failed) a stress test on January 4th. Any illusion that there really wasn’t a problem was gone but we still didn’t have a definite diagnosis – getting that required further testing. – I wished it would happen faster because it was very  stressful not knowing  -- I wanted to know even though it was possible the news wouldn’t  be good.   
 
A song by Toby Keith contains the line I wish I didn't know now what I didn't know then”    and , of course  your mind goes in that direction  but I believe that “knowing is always better than not knowing” (and as I said in an earlier post whether I knew or not  didn't change the reality of my situation and the danger I was in)   - so I wanted to  get on with it.    (I praise God that he answered your prayers. The diagnosis was made very quickly (in less than 3 weeks on January 22).  

 
In the spiritual realm, once we see that there is a problem and we  turn to God for answers the diagnosis can be immediate. No waiting – worrying – wondering what it is and whether it can be fixed.  The diagnosis is already known – we are “out of step” with God.  But it seems (from my personal experience and observation) that very few people easily and immediately accept that God is the answer. There is a struggle between “the ignorance is bliss” state that they were  in and the “freedom given by truth” that can be theirs. When we see people in that struggle we pray, we encourage and we wait  because it’s their journey and as much as we would like to we can’t  “force” the process.
 
... to be continued
 
God Bless
Charlie