For the joy set before you...Endure!

I recently sent an email to a friend of mine who, for the last 6 years or so, has a 22 year old son, Pat, that was seriously injured in a car accident...the kind that leaves your mind in tact but your physical, verbal and social skills are, unless by extensive physical therapy and the miracle of Christ's healing power, photographs of the crash site. He lives in a group home with several assistants and other residents with serious needs physically or mentally. Due to various issues in the family Siiri has been allowed to visit Pat only a few days a week and yet she continues to do so faithfully in being the mother God has made her to be....it's really beautiful! I shared with her what God has been teaching me the last 6 months or so about Hebrews 12:1-3 and I pray that this will serve as an encouragement to you and to myself when weights of this world and sin try to hinder our race towards the finish line!

Hey Siiri!

It's been a LONG time! Mainly on my part, I'll admit but rarely is there a day still where you and Pat are not on my mind and prayers in one way or another. As I was driving home from my shoveling job I heard God's Spirit bring to mind a passage that I have been meditating on for a while now and that's Hebrews 12:1-3...

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted." (Heb. 12:1-3 ESV)

Couple things that are heavily laid on my heart to share in light of this passage...

1. In the context here, the writer gave a whole lineup of faith all-stars including Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham and his wife, Sarah. These people were described as this: "These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city." (11:13-16 ESV)

Other people mentioned in this lineup are Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Rahab the prostitute, and "For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets" (11:32) :-) These people, Siiri, are our great cloud of witnesses.

2. What in your life can you answer to yourself serve as a weight or are a "sin which clings so closely" to you that it hinders you to not "run with endurance the race that is set before" you? Your race as a follower of Christ? Your race as Pat's mom in faithfully, in God's grace alone, serving and loving and encouraging him and just simply being there for him?

3. Follow Christ's example as you "lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely," and keep "the joy set before" you and endure your hardships, doubts and (in eyes of the world) shameful acts of faithfulness to your calling as a disciple of Christ, wife, and mother. Why is it that Christ "endured from sinners such hostility against himself?" He kept the joy set before Him of being "seated at the right hand of the throne of God."

For the "joy set before" you, Siiri, endure being a mother to Pat! Endure praying for Ed and Michelle! (her ex-husband and his wife) Endure the pain of not seeing Pat healed despite your boiling hot and consistent prayers b/c you may just be like your "great cloud of witnesses" who "died in faith, not having received the things promised but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth." Let that be up God though. As for you, be encouraged by this and keep the joy set before you as you endure loving your son and being the mother you were called to! I love you and will continue to pray for you as God brings you joyfully to my mind! :)