Welcome to Holland

My wife found this story – from a parent with a special needs child. I hope this help you understand.

I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability - to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It's like this......

When you're going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous vacation trip - to Italy. You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum. The Michelangelo David. The gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It's all very exciting.

After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, "Welcome to Holland."

"Holland?!?" you say. "What do you mean Holland?? I signed up for Italy! I'm supposed to be in Italy. All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy."

But there's been a change in the flight plan. They've landed in Holland and there you must stay. The important thing is that they haven't taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It's just a different place.

So you must go out and buy new guide books. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met.
It's just a different place. It's slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you've been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around.... and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills....and Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandts.

But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy... and they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say "Yes, that's where I was supposed to go. That's what I had planned."

And the pain of that will never, ever, ever, ever go away... because the loss of that dream is a very, very significant loss.

But... if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things ... about Holland.

Emily Perl Kingsley 1987

 

Weather in Wausau Cancels City!

People in Wausau are hardy people, that is what make what happened today so difficult for me to process. Tonight it is forecast to get cold, at 8 PM it should be about -5F on the mercury (note to kids… thermometers used to actually have mercury in them, and were not digital). With wind chill it will feel like it is -20 to -25F. That is cold but hardly justifies closing down the city. To make matters worse I was personally part of the decision to cancel our ministries tonight. Our official policy is we cancel when the school system cancels. They canceled this afternoon, and after much debate we followed our policy. Working backwards I see how this happened. The forecast for tomorrow AM calls for -36F with wind chill, anything below -35F triggers an automatic cancelation. When you think about kids waiting outside for a bus in that kind of weather, wow that will either kill them or make them stronger. The school system then called off events this evening, locking in our decision at IBC. Any church in Wausau could meet tonight without putting kids in danger, but I don't think any will. We get into the "What if" thinking…what if my car breaks down, what if I can't get a tow truck, what if my fuel pump is frozen, what if my coat is not warm enough…. And so on. What is that? Is it genuine responsibility, wisdom or is it fear? I am not sure? It will become evident tonight if canceling Wausau was a good idea. Here are a few predictions, tonight restaurants and shopping establishments will be full, tomorrow as I drive to work (unless it is too cold for me to get out of bed) I will see kids outside playing in the cold. Here is an idea maybe churches should change their cancelation policy to close when Walmart closes rather than the schools? Well enjoy the night with your family and we will see you Sunday.

Ezekiel 33:17-20

17 "Yet your countrymen say, 'The way of the Lord is not just.' But it is their way that is not just. 18 If a righteous man turns from his righteousness and does evil, he will die for it. 19 And if a wicked man turns away from his wickedness and does what is just and right, he will live by doing so. 20 Yet, O house of Israel, you say, 'The way of the Lord is not just.' But I will judge each of you according to his own ways."

This is a compelling and interesting passage from the prophet Ezekiel. He ministered for 22 years in Babylon 7 years before the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BC and 15 years after. God called him to warn the nation of Israel about the Judgment that was coming upon them because of their disobedience to God and His law. Then after the destruction of Jerusalem he speaks about God's plan for the Jewish nation to cast a vision of hope for restoration to the Jewish nation.

The book is logically divided into 3 sections:

1. Judgments against Israel (1 – 24)
   
2. Judgments against other nations (25-32)
   
3. Restoration for Israel (33-48)
   

So now we jump headlong into the 3^rd section of this fascinating book. Chapter 33 is the beginning of this new section, and we see a renewal of the call upon Ezekiel's life to be a faithful watchman for the Lord – to warn the people about what God has revealed to Ezekiel (33:1-9). We have recorded for us a sobering picture of the responsibility it is to warn people of coming danger. Ezekiel took this responsibility seriously. And so should we.

A certain question is on the minds of the Jews in exile. That question is recorded in verse 10 and answerer in verses 11 – 20. The question is:

"Our offenses and sins weigh us down, and we are wasting away because of them. How then can we live?" NIV

"If our transgressions and our sins be upon us, and we pine away in them, how should we then live?" KJV

"Surely our transgressions and our sins are upon us, and
we rot away because of them. How then can we live?" ESV

The idea here from the Jewish people is that their sin as a nation from generations past has put a debt of sin upon them, that all they will ever experience in life is more of God's judgment. How they lived today was not going to make any difference because they were damned by the sins of their parents. They felt as if they had no hope as a nation or as individuals to live a life of meaning and purpose. Would they be able to move back to their land? They questioned God's faithfulness to His covenant with Abraham – had God rejected them as a people forever? Ezekiel speaks words of hope to the people looking for sincere answers to this all important question.

The next 15 chapters give hope and direction to the nation of Israel – but here we are only looking at this one fundamental issue in 33:10-20. What we see is the Jew living in Babylon is NOT condemned to death because of his nations past, but based on his individual life right now. Ezekiel is exhorting them to look at their life today and live a righteous and holy life that is pleasing to God. To administer justice, to follow God's Law and do right, this is a good definition on righteousness – "doing right".

When the word "death" is used in this passage we have no alternative but to understand it literally as death. The judgments decreed by God upon Jerusalem for their sinful practice was death. The Babylonian army physically came to Jerusalem took their swords and ended the biological existence of many Jewish people. By contrast the word "life" means biologically alive.

Application

The answer to the question "How then can we live?" is to stop using your life and your heritage as an excuse for continuing in personal sin. Don't blame God for judging you unfairly – when you are rationalizing your choice to live in sin, and experience pain and even death because of your own bad choices.

God is just to judge each of us for our sins. Ezekiel reminds Israel if they sin God is just to punish them. Paul reminded the Church of this in 1 Cor. 11:30. Sin always has consequences. If we put our trust in Jesus Christ and his complete and finished work on the cross as payment for our sins we are forgiven and made spiritually alive forever, according to God sovereign plan. One consequence of my sin is that Jesus had to go to the cross and die for me – my sin required death.

As a forgiven follower of Jesus I still experience the consequences of my sins each day, and so do you. We feel pain of broken relationships because of the sin of pride, or gossip. We pay for the sin of speeding through the ticket fee and higher insurance rates. We pay for the sin of greed when our homes are foreclosed on because we over extended our finances. We pay for the sin of adultery by our marriage dissolving. God forgives us from the eternal penalty of our sin, but we still face the just consequences of our sin.

God judgment has a dual role in the lives of His people, first to discipline us and second to make us holy. His judgment and his love go hand in hand.

Do you find yourself under a burden of sin so heavy you ask yourself "how can I go on living?" God's Word gives you hope even today – stop sinning and live a righteous life. Experience the joy of living the way God has told us. Be sanctified! Find your satisfaction in bringing glory to God and trusting in his Word.

Other Reflections

It is imperative we understand this passage is not speaking to the issue of our salvation or eternal forgiveness of our sin by God. Ephesians 2:8-9 clearly reminds us that our salvation is by grace through faith – not by our works.

It is backwards, and dangerous to take any single passage of scripture out of its context and use it to prove our point. We must value all of God's Word enough to do the hard word of digging into it and taking it for what it says.

Dan Sterken
12/30/08