Break My Son's Heart Please

Last year I made my first ever trip out of Iowa. That's right, I have been stuck in this corn prison for 15 years and finally I am going to see the rest of the world...or at least Denver. So in April of 2007 we packed our bags and headed for our 14 hour trip across Nebraska and into Colorado to visit the Mile High City. What a wonderful time. I had nothing but fun on that trip and every minute was ejoyable.

The reason I was there was because my church decided to take a Bible Quizzing team to competition that year and I was asked to be part of the team. We spent every Thursday studying many of the lessons we learned that year and the Bible in general. So when April came around it was pretty exciting. We got there and I was shocked from the beginning. Being to see mountains up close for the first time was amazing. It was hard imagining the huge monstrous mounds. Then the city was spectacular too. I remember going in ther and seeing wavering skyscrapers, roller coasters, and a three story tall blue bear looking into large glass building in the first five minutes we were there.

Competition was great too. We, surprisingly, made it to the silver round which is awesome for noobs like us. But the greatest thing about being in Denver was the worship. I remeber the song leader was a local band that had a little of national fame, but still not well known or mainstream. His name was Danny Oertli. I loved his songs and especially the stories behind them. One in particular that stuck out in my mind was his song "Thought You Should Know."

It really challenged your thinking about how you pray. His story went something like this: He was in his son's room who was about a year old and he was praying for his son. Danny had already lost his wife, remarried with a new child and had an adopted child and this kid was the new one. Well, he didn't want anything bad to happen to his son considering that he would grow up with a wierd family background it could case some hindrence for him. We prayed for a bubble to be around his son that he would go through life without any pain or troubles and that everything would be a happily ever after. Right then he sweared he could feel Jesus there tapping him on the shoulder...and there he realized. He realized that he wanted his son to be broken, because when people are broken and humbled in life that is the time when they cling to the Word and God, that is when they find God and grow, that is when they realize that God is there to comfort us in the hard times and He will pick us back up. Psalms 34:18 is my life verse because of this.

Isn't that how we should also act towards ourselves? We can't ask for God to take us down the happy trail of life with the smiling lambs and the pretty butterflies. Sometimes He will take us through that dark place that doesn't have any light. But the great thing is that He will guide us, and we will grow stronger through Him. He puts us through trials. We can't pray for an easier time, we have to pray for the most difficult trials that we can bear with Christ. (Which is nearly everything.) So this is my prayer, "God, will you please put me through trials this summer and for the rest of the year and my life. God will you please test me, so I can show your strenght. You. Are. Awesome."