I lay there on my bed with my leg, fully encompassed by a plaster cast, sticking straight up in the air like a submarine periscope.  This was the only position that gave me some degree of relief from the pain.

I had shattered my leg playing soccer.  My shin had broken in 3 places and was bent at a right angle when they loaded me onto the stretcher to rush me to emergency.  They had set it 3 times, and now I was in a full length cast.

The breaks were painful to say the least, but it was the nervous damage that was the most agonizing.  The breaks were so violent they damaged the nerve to my foot and nearly severed it.  Have you ever really smashed your funny bone and had that shooting, overwhelming nervous pain run through your arm?  That was what my leg felt like on an ongoing basis.

As I lay in my bed immobile for days on end with my great white periscope, I had much time to reflect and talk to Jesus.  I knew the “suffering” I was going through was part of the Lord’s work in my life.  I was desperate to learn what He wanted to teach me.

“Lord, please help me to learn what you are trying to teach me – I don’t want to have to go through this again.”

As I cried out to the Lord to help me to learn, I felt like He whispered something very simple to me,

“You cannot miss what I am doing in your heart if you simply surrender to me.”

So I didn’t need to figure it out?  I didn’t need to try hard not to miss the lesson?

No.  I needed to simply ask the Lord to do His work in my heart.

“Lord, I offer my heart to you.   Please do all you want to do in me.”

I needed to journey with Him through the pain, through the sorrow, through the suffering and He would work His purposes in me.  I needed to not try to get out of this situation, but to meet Him in it.

When we’re experiencing pain, suffering and sorrow we often ask the Lord to deliver us from it, instead of asking Him to accomplish His purposes through it.  We want out of it instead of meeting Jesus in it.  The fact is, we often meet the Lord in the midst of suffering.  It is our times of greatest grief that are often our times of greatest growth.

This life is filled with both joy and sorrow, deliverance and suffering.  Is God’s heart for us to live in freedom, joy, hope, peace, strength, faith, love, deliverance and wholeness?  Yes.  Does God heal and deliver?  Yes.  Does He also invite us into pain, suffering and sorrow to discover more of Him?  Yes.

I read a book when I was in my 20’s called Don’t Waste Your Sorrows, by Paul Billheimer.  What a great gift this book was to me.  After reading the book I actually wanted to suffer so I could better know Christ.   It helped me to gain an eternal perspective on painful experiences. It enabled me to see how God has planned for the church to be trained through these kinds of circumstances.  It is our proper response to the difficulties in life that enables us to grow in Jesus, if we don’t “waste our sorrows”.

Are you in the midst of a great sorrow, a difficult circumstance or some sort of suffering?  Invite Jesus into your situation and meet Him there.  Ask Him to help you discover Him in the midst of the circumstance and to work His will in you.

Make growth your primary objective, not escape.  He will deliver you – in His timing, not yours.

I have heard it said, “The will of God won’t take you where the grace of God can’t keep you.”  He is able to make grace abound to you, in every circumstance.

Don’t waste your sorrows – meet Jesus in the midst of them and discover His heart for you and for others through you.

Hebrews 12:11

“All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.”

Romans 5:3-5

“And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”

Philippians 3:10, 11

“That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.”

2 Corinthians 4:17, 18

“For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison”.

“Crime is a disease – I’m the cure.”

That statement, uttered by Lieutenant Marion ‘Cobra’ Cobretti played by Sylvester Stallone, was THE line from his 1986 film “Cobra”.  Cobra would probably be considered one of the low lights in Stallone’s filmography.

In Cobra, Stallone plays a take-no-prisoners, free spirited cop who does whatever is necessary to rid the streets of crime.  It is a violent mash up of cheesy one liners, over-acting and innumerable rounds of bullets to blow away the bad guys.

Back in 1986 I saw this movie in the theater.  It was not memorable in any particular way, except for a line that has stood out to me from the movie for over 30 years now.

At one point in the film Stallone has rescued a beautiful young lady, played by Brigitte Nielsen, from a horrendous crime.  In her traumatized state ‘Cobra’ is taking her to a hidden location to keep her safe so she can testify against the bad guys – who turn out to far bigger and badder than either had realized.

On the way to their secret destination, while conversing in the car, the woman’s terror begins to resurface.  The young woman’s primary concern is her safety.  How is she going to live through this?  What’s going to stop the bad guys from finding her?  Who will protect her?  Who can she trust?

As she begins to tear up with fear Stallone slowly turns to her.  He focuses his steely gaze at her from behind his silver reflector aviator sun glasses.  He dramatically removes the ever present match stick from his mouth, then utters this phrase,

“You gotta have faith.”

Sounds like something Jesus said doesn’t it?

The thing is, faith isn’t the answer.  The object of our faith is the answer.

Everybody in the world has faith.  But faith in what?  Millions of people have faith in money.  Many have faith in their own skills and abilities.  Countless numbers have faith in everything from hard work to education, institutions of all kinds to family or friends, intelligence and logic to mythology and idols.

What really matters is what you have put your faith in.  Or perhaps more accurately stated, what really matters is who you have put your faith in.

The only faith that truly saves and transforms us is faith in God.  Faith in anything other than Jesus will ultimately falter.

So what does it mean to have faith in Jesus?

Put very simply, faith in Jesus means we believe He is who He said He is.  As C.S. Lewis said, we can only come to 3 conclusions about Jesus: He is either a lunatic, a liar or Lord.  Faith in Jesus is believing He is Lord – just like He said He is.

Having faith in Jesus also means we believe what He said is true.  Our compass, our Truth, is the Word of God.

Having Faith in Jesus and the Word of God also means we believe in things we haven’t seen yet.  As Hebrews 11:1 tells us, “Faith is confidence in what we hope for, and assurance about what we do not see.”

How can we have faith in something that hasn’t happened yet?  How can we have faith in something, or someone, we cannot see?  Well, it’s because we believe what God said is true.  Someone once said to me, “I don’t really think of faith as belief without proof, but trust without reservation.”

Our faith, a faith that is living and active, is really based in a relationship with Jesus.  When we know Jesus, when we have experienced the reality of His love and life, we trust Him.  The deeper our relationship with Him, the deeper our trust is, and, therefore, the deeper our faith is.

However, without faith we cannot have a relationship with Christ.  As Hebrews 11:6 says, “And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.”

Faith in Jesus is our only hope.  Faith in anything apart from Christ is like building a house on the sand.

Yes, you gotta have faith – in Christ alone.

Galatians 2:16

“know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified.”

2 Corinthians 5:7

“For we live by faith, not by sight.”

Romans 5:1, 2

“Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God.”

Mark 11:22

“’Have faith in God,’ Jesus answered.”

“When I yell, ‘Stop paddling!’ you need to stop paddling.  When I yell, ‘Get low!” you need to crouch down in the boat.  When I yell, “Hold on!’ you need to grab onto the life lines in the boat.”

Simple.  I can do that. This is going to be awesome…

And with that we began our white-water rafting adventure on the Rio Toro through the heart of Costa Rican rainforests.  Anne, David, Benjamin, and I were all very excited about this adventure.  Well, all the MacLean men were excited.  Anne was not, but she was willing to give it a shot for the sake of the family.

We had a small raft: the four of us and 2 guides.  The guides were steering, we were paddling.  David and I were at the front sitting up on the sides of the raft, with Benjamin and Anne behind us, and the guides at the stern.

The water was exhilarating.  It was invigorating.  These boiling, churning waters were taking us outside our comfort zone into new realms of adrenalized living.  What a rush!

Our adventure turned into a little more of an adventure than we bargained for.  The rapids seemed to be getting larger and larger.  As we headed into one particularly large rapid, our guide shouted out, “Stop paddling!”.  I couldn’t hear him, so I kept attacking the river with vigorous strokes.  “Get low!”  he yelled.  I kept paddling oblivious to his instructions.  “Hold on!” he finally commanded us…

That’s when I was catapulted out of the boat.  Well, not totally out of the boat.  My legs got caught under a safety line so I was on my back in the water, with my legs over the side of the raft in the boat, as I was being dragged through the rapids.  Thankfully David came over to my rescue and pulled me back into the boat.

Anne was horrified.  However, not nearly as horrified as she would be in the next rapid.  This rapid catapulted both David and I over the side of the boat – again with our legs trapped in the boat so we were being dragged down the river.  Anne and Benjamin both came to my aid, which almost flipped the raft over completely.  Working with stealthy strategy they were able to haul both David and I back into the boat.

That’s when we realized our guides were gone.

Before we knew it, they popped back into the boat exclaiming, “Whew, that was a big one!”

What we experienced that day was the awesome power of a river.  There seemed to be no end to the water.  It kept flowing and flowing and flowing.  It easily swept us up into an exhilifying adventure far greater than ourselves.

The life of the Rio Toro was contagious.  We felt alive in a way we never would have otherwise.

I recalled this adventure when I spoke recently with a sister in Christ.  She was MCing our global leadership conference.  Her prayer was that the life of Christ would flow through her when she was on stage.

As I prayed for her I remembered what Jesus promised us.  He said we have rivers of life flowing inside us.  He promised we have springs of living water nourishing our soul.  He promised that His life, the presence of the Holy Spirit, is in us – like a river.

I believe the rivers of life Jesus promised us have no limitations.  There is always more of His life, His Spirit, He has for us.  I believe we need to thank Him we have His river of life – His spring of living water – inside us, and ask Him to keep filling us up to overflowing with His Spirit.

Sometimes those rivers of life will sweep us up into adventure.  Sometimes the waters of life will soothe our thirsty soul.  Other times the spring of life will bring peace, calm and life.

Let’s drink deeply of His waters of life inside us, and pray my friend’s prayer, “Lord, thank you for your living water inside me.  Please flow through me to those around me!”

Yes, we have rivers of living water inside us – let it flow Lord!

John 7:38

“Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.”

John 4:14

“but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

Isaiah 58:11

“The Lord will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.”

Psalm 1:1-3

“Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers, but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night.  That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither – whatever they do prospers.”

I met a Kingdom businessman this month.  And, I’m very impressed.

I believe we’re all called to be ambassadors of God’s Kingdom on earth.  We’re called to make known the heart of God for people in and through our sphere of influence and authority.  If we don’t work in/for the church we are “marketplace” ministers.

Jesus didn’t ask any of us to give Him part of our life.  He called you and me to give Him our whole life – all of it, 24/7.

Obviously our work is a big part of our lives, so work is a primary sphere where we can be ministers of God’s Government.  What that means is that in and through everything we do we try to reflect the heart of God.  We endeavour to help people see there is a way to live that’s different than that which is portrayed by this world.

God created, crafted and called us to a way of life in alignment with His heart, and His purposes.  And of course, Jesus made a way for us to be reconciled to our Father so we can live the way we were created to live: full of hope, freedom, life, joy, faith, love, peace, goodness, etc.

So, conducting Kingdom Business is more than just being honest and having integrity.  It’s more than being generous and fair.  It’s all of that, and so much more… in many ways it’s putting hands, feet and a face to God.  Who you are at work, how you do business may be the closest some people ever get to Jesus.

I have recently experienced a great example of that – through a Chiropractor.

It seems I needed some back work.  A good friend of mine referred me to Summit Chiropractic in Kelowna.  I didn’t really want to go.  I didn’t see any great need.  I was ‘fine’.  However, my friend secured some initial complementary sessions for me, so I thought I would go out of respect and appreciation for him.

When I arrived at “Dr. J’s” office I was immediately impressed.  His door had “branding” messages on the glass.  But the messages were “kingdom” messages that sowed faith encouragement and hope.  Words like, “hope”, “life”, “miracles”, “joy”, etc were in different fonts on the door.

When I walked in there was soft upbeat music playing.  When I listened more closely I realized the music was Jesus music – Hillsong’s Cornerstone was playing when I finally recognized what I was listening to.  The office was filled with life, light, joy and hope.  Custom made posters on the walls all promoted the philosophy of Summit with hope and life.  Other posters communicated their commitment to contribute to global charities serving impoverished peoples.

In the waiting room there’s a large screen TV scrolling through customized still images with more messages of hope, life and joy.  Messages like a beautiful forest scene with sun light shining through the trees and the message, “There is always, always, always, always hope.”

Another screen had the message, “Your feelings follow your focus – what are you focusing on?”

Another had a photo of a man with a picture frame around his head speaking to the beauty of God’s design.

Jesus was definitely welcome in this office.   You could see His heart for life, hope, joy, peace and charity everywhere.

I attended an initial orientation session one night with great reticence.  However, this was part of the orientation to help us – the potential patients – understand Jason’s philosophy to Chiropractic care.  His message was rife with enthusiasm, passion, hope, truth, joy, encouragement, education and explicit mention of God’s amazing design of the human body.  “I know this may not be your belief, but I believe we were wonderfully created by God and our bodies are miraculous…”

It’s clearly very important for Summit patients to understand not only the ‘what’ of Chiropractic treatment, but more importantly the ‘why’ behind the work.

Dr. J’s joy, passion, dedication, commitment and conviction for his craft was obvious – he’s on a mission from God.  He’s a Kingdom business owner who sees himself as an ambassador of God’s Kingdom on earth.  He’s in full-time ministry.

Well done my friend!

May we all wholeheartedly conduct Kingdom business!

Colossians 3:23, 24

“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.”

Matthew 16:24-26a

“Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?”

1 Peter 2:12

^“Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.”