Don’t Drink the Water!

“I am the patient, and God is the surgeon.” How difficult that is for us to remember. Once at the Bible School in Argentina where I was the director, I was called because a student had injured himself with a hammer. He was breaking up concrete and hit himself in the forehead. He was bleeding, so a bandage had been wrapped around his head, and he was putting pressure on it. I rushed him to the hospital. Standing in front of the admittance clerk, I will never forget the question she asked, “Which one of you is the patient?” It seemed apparent to us as the student held up his hand. The blood all over his face was a big clue, but not to this person. In the same way, we who have so many imperfections would naturally think I am the patient, and God is the surgeon, but how often do we forget.

When we look at the lives of Saul and David in the Old Testament, we see a study of contrast. Saul hardened his heart toward God while David opened his heart toward God. The surgery that God performed on David lasted many years, as he was being prepared to be king. God took things away from him the way a surgeon cuts away cancer so that the patient will live. Charles Swindoll, in the book David, lists five things that David lost in this process of being attacked by Saul. David lost his position, he lost his family, he lost his mentor, he lost his dear friend, and David lost his self-respect (1 Sam 19-21).

It was July 30, 1945, the war was a month from being over, and the battle cruiser USS Indianapolis was returning from a mission of delivering enriched uranium to allied forces in the Pacific. A Japanese sub sent a deadly torpedo into the cruiser sinking her in just 12 minutes, killing 300 of 1,200 men on board. The remaining 900 would have to survive in a shark-infested ocean under the brutal Pacific sun for four days and five nights without food and without water. Of the 900 that went into the water, only 316 survived the lack of water and the shark attacks and worst of all the hallucinations. The men saw incredible hallucinations, and it caught on like a plague. They dove into water to get on their ship that they saw sailing back into their lives. The chief medical officer, Haynes, recorded his own experience.

There was nothing I could do, nothing I do but give advice, bury the dead at sea and try to keep the men from drinking the water. When the hot sun came out, and we were in this crystal clear ocean, we were so thirsty. You couldn’t believe it wasn’t good enough to drink. I had a hard time convincing the men they shouldn’t drink it. The real young ones…you take away their hope, you take away their water and food, they would drink the salt water and they would go fast. I can remember striking them who were drinking the salt water to try to stop them. They would get dehydrated, then become maniacal. There were mass hallucinations. I was amazed how everyone would see the same thing. One man would see something, and then everyone else would see it. Even I fought the hallucinations off and on. Something always brought me back.[i]

We too have to fight delusions of this world that tell us to drink of this world’s water. David said, “How long, O men, will you turn my glory into shame? How long will you love delusions and seek false gods?” (Ps 4:2). God is the only one who can truly satisfy our longing soul. It took David many years of long trials to learn that on God’s operating table, but he finally did get it. Listen to his heart for God: “As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God” (Ps 42:1-2).

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[i] Stanton, Doug. In Harm's Way: The Sinking of the U.S.S. Indianapolis and the Extraordinary Story of Its Survivors. Henry Holt and Co. Location 2275, Kindle Edition.

Building Blocks for Success

Imagine how it feels to send your college student off to a faraway place; then you know how Paul felt when he sent Timothy to Ephesus. Timothy was contemplating giving up when Paul told him to stay (1 Tim 1:3). Ephesus had been no picnic; Timothy avoided confrontation because it was in his nature. Some of the older men were looking down their noses at young Timothy. Paul sent him five building blocks for a fruitful ministry in his first letter. The way would be through personal godliness, through the Word, through giftedness, through diligence, and through balance.

Paul urged Timothy to pursue godliness in his life, and the apostle detailed five aspects of how that picture would look: speech, life, love, faith, and purity. Our speech no doubt is the most challenging aspect of our self-discipline. Solomon said, “The lips of the righteous know what is fitting, but the mouth of the wicked only what is perverse” (Prov 10:32). That kind of control is what Timothy needed in his work in his own life. Secondly, Timothy needed to work on his day-to-day life. There was to be no secular versus sacred. All of life was to be sacred. His life was to bear witness to his faith. Thirdly, his love was to be the kind of love Paul described in his letter to the Corinthians: “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs” (1 Cor 13:4-5). Fourthly, his faith was to be real—the kind that Jesus described in his parable of the faithful servants: “So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, 'We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty'" (Luke 17:10). Faith was to be responsive without expecting some reward. It was to be real and from the heart. Lastly, purity has to be the kind that comes from God. If it is self-generated, it will be like this: “For in his own eyes he flatters himself too much to detect or hate his sin” (Ps 32:2).  When it comes from God, it will be like this: “Your love, O Lord, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies. Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains, your justice like the great deep” (Ps 36:5-6).

The second building block was the importance of God’s Word in Timothy’s ministry and work. It was to be center of what he did. God’s Word has to be front and center, or we will get lost in the maze of voices in this world.

The third building block is giftedness. We all have been given gifts, and we are to use them for the benefit of God’s glory and others. Our gifts were given to be used and not to be kept hidden.

The fourth building block is diligence. Diligence is staying at it and doing the best we know how. There is no place for laziness in God’s work. We are to persevere without giving up.

The fifth building block is balance. Life has to have a balance to work right—a balance between our biblical doctrine and beliefs and the application of those beliefs. That balance works when we live in the grace that allows us to forgive and be forgiven.