Wednesday, December 3, 2008

A lyrical moment

On Sunday, I sang a song in church that I have sung before – many times, in fact. Isn’t it interesting how a lyric can jump out at you in a brand new way? For me, it was a phrase in the middle of a song entitled, “Knowing You.” Normally, I find the song a little sappy (it’s that line “You’re the best” that seems too Hallmark to me), but this week as the song was cruising along, I had a moment as I was singing. The phrase that grabbed my attention was:

Oh, to know the power of Your risen life.

Now, technically, Jesus’ risen life was only 40 days here on earth and the rest He is spending “at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.” (Romans 8:34) Yet, even though the phrasing is strange, he really means: Oh, to know the power of Your resurrection, because writer Graham Kendrick (guy in pic) based the lyrics on a passage from the book of Philippians that spells it out clearly (see Phil. 3:7-11).

My mind often wanders to strange places, but here is what I remembered in that singing moment. When I was 8 months pregnant with Mia, my doctor discovered a lump in my right breast. I needed a biopsy before she was born, and a surgeon named Dr. Cozzarelli performed it for me. He clearly understood the anxiety associated with the situation – my belly as large as it could possibly be – and the thought of having cancer and a newborn…

While he operated, Dr. Cozzarelli began to talk to me. Having no idea what I thought about God, he started witnessing to me – or at the very least – he was being honest and frank about his faith in order to comfort me. Even though I clearly know how I feel about God, and the lump was benign, the doctor’s words have never left me. He said, “You know what it was for me? How I knew there was a God? Well, if you take all the finest scientists in the world, give them unlimited resources and put them in a fully-equipped laboratory together without limitations, they still cannot produce life. Not a single spark. Try as we may, try as we might, it is beyond our ability to do. There has to be something more.”

That is a very modern argument, but I can conversely experience the truth of it. God is The Man. Just imagine what had to transpire to make a dead man a living one once again. And not just a dead man – a dead for three days man.

The unfathomable ingenuity, brilliance and RAW POWER that God used to raise Jesus from the dead are all available to heal my life. It’s kind of thrilling and scary all at once. God longs to offer me strength of that magnitude.

How does this healing take place? Well, knowing the power of His resurrection is enough to humble my pride and calm my fears, the very two things that keep me from really living.

He is bringing me back from the dead.

2 comments:

Mike said...

Its amazing how something we do often and almost take for granted, God will give us a little shake and make us realize how much weight the words we sing actually carry... even if they are too "Hallmark" for us.

I had to give a presentation in a class once time on artificial intelligence and human creation in reguards to that and we came, as a class, to the conclusion that the only thing that is hindering us from actualy fully creating life and/or artificial intelligence is the inability to make a soul... whatever that means, but God the creator... can, so he must exist.

Anonymous said...

I have always loved Dr. Cozzarrelli. And you have just shared an extra reason.

He removed a plantar's wart from my foot AND pierced my ears in one office visit. He was tickled to be working on both ends of me. I wasn't tickled because both ends HURT.