“The emergency room is full of people doing something only every once and awhile.”-George Landolt

Matthew 6:11- “Give us today our daily bread”

While speaking with my friend George the other day about my feeling old and worn out after a day of physically demanding work building a stone wall, he said this to me, “the emergency room is full of people doing something only every once and a while.” We laughed, and I said I was going to write about that, and so here we are. It struck me funny what he said, but almost instantaneously the Lord used George’s comment to bring to mind a quite serious reality that I see played out often in my life and in the lives of the people I am in community with. Let me explain.

Often times I can find myself in an apparent state of emergency, that is to say, there is some crisis or pain that is affecting my life that I feel needs to be drastically different. Most of my time counseling with others and working with people is much the same. There is some crisis, and we are there meeting in order to resolve it, so that we can get back to life as we like it; namely, free of suffering, free of need.

In building this stone wall the other day I was using muscles that go unused most days in my life and as a result, in the wake of overuse, I found my body in a state of emergency, feeling horrible and unable to rest. Most people can relate to this in their attempts to “get back in shape” though diet and fitness, getting all excited about their new commitment to a healthier self, only to run 6 miles the first time out, and are so sore from that experience that they can’t run for a month.

What’s perplexing in all of this is the naive shock that is expressed when we are humbled by the limitations of our bodies. Yet we often do not consider that it is not necessarily the limitations of our bodies, but the limitations of our untrained, undisciplined bodies that has led to the physical duress. It is a similar situation with our spiritual self. When we spend little to no portion of our daily lives in receiving comfort, guidance, and nurture from the Lord though the Holy Spirit and His Word, why then would we expect that when any crisis in our lives is experienced, we would have the capacity to receive, not produce, the experiential access to the Father that does lead to the capacity to endure. This is like waking up tomorrow and trying to run a marathon with no training.

This is not saying that through adequate preparation you will be able to face anything that life throws your way, but what I am saying is that for you to be strengthened by the Holy Spirit and eat from the “bread of life (John 6)” you need to have some working familiarity with the person of Jesus. (John 10:27-My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.) Why would we expect to be able to follow Jesus, know his voice, to receive from Him what we need to face the pain of life, when He is as familiar to us as the discipline of regular exercise? Sadly our response to Jesus invitation to depend daily upon the Father through Him for all we need looks often like our vain attempts to shave 10 pounds for a spring break bathing suit; often started a little to late for the desired result.

John 4:53-58 “ Jesus said to them, "I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your forefathers ate manna and died, but he who feeds on this bread will live forever."

Many disciples deserted Jesus after this teaching. The question is before us today. Do we believe what Jesus said when he stated that “my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink?” It is only when this reality breaks into the daily rhythms of our lives, that at the first sign of crisis and pain, we don’t pull a spiritual hamstring trying to get ourselves out of such emotional strain. We don’t sound the alarm and head to the emotional/spiritual emergency room because though our time encountering the person of Jesus we aren’t surprised by the pain of life (Isaiah 53:3- He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering), and aren’t confused about who has the power to comfort and redeem the pain (Isaiah 53:5-by his wounds we are healed).

George’s comment begs this question. Are we in the spiritual emergency room not because of a true crisis, but as a result of unbelief induced apathy that results in an “endurance-less” life that has no capacity through the Holy Spirit to endure and even have joy in the face of trials?

2 Corinthians 12:8-10 Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.