Spirit and Flesh - The Battle Rages On

As some of you may know, I'm currently in Blacksburg, VA (VA Tech) working with the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. I've been here a couple of days now. Our shooting schedule has been busy in the mornings, but the afternoons have been free (for me to blog!). That's why I'm typing now instead of working.

Since I had some free time this afternoon I thought of going by the local mall and walking around a bit - maybe catch some sales (some of you are now wondering if Kim somehow hacked onto my blog page and is typing this). But as I left the hotel, I had a strong desire to go to the memorial site for the students who were killed here at VA Tech just a week or so ago. All the victims have their own memorials, with their names printed on cards. As I walked around the memorial, I found myself praying for the families of the students, one by one, by name. I watched students there at the drill field. Some were weeping at the memorial, some were playing frisbee. All were trying to cope with it the best they could. I couldn't help but wonder how the parents must feel. Naturally, being a parent myself, the first thing I thought of was how I would feel if this had happened to one of my daughters. About that time, a cold wind began to blow that seemed to pass right through my coat and chill my very core. And there, I began thinking of how lonely the world must be for the parents. To have the joy in their lives ripped out in a moment. To be left with a gaping hole in their hearts that they think may never heal. All those pat answers that we as Christians tend to offer seemed, at that moment, to be useless. Words can't bring healing. Justice doesn't seem to help (much). Time may bring relief but that's a long ways away from the here and now. I realized that only the Great Comforter, the Holy Spirit, could do anything for these parents. And I began to ask the Holy Spirit to be with them. I think of how Jesus reacted when He found out that Lazarus had died - He wept. He didn't launch into a 3 point sermon on how the peace of God transcends our pain. He hurt, he wept, he felt loss. When Jesus left, he didn't leave us alone. He sent the Holy Spirit to be with us. Not as an inferior substitute or a ghostly shadow of God's nature, but as a powerful comforter and healer. And that healer is the only one who can help these families and students.

As I was leaving the memorial, having a sense of meeting with God, the temptation began to come around me. It seems that all the pretty girls on campus showed up wearing their short shorts and revealing tops. Of course, I began to beat myself up mentally that I would even be distracted by them. God wanted me there to pray, but the flesh began to kick in. Then I thought of Peter, James and John, who, when instructed by Jesus to stay and watch while he went up to pray, fell asleep instead. Not that I aspire to reach their level of obedience at that moment (I'm already there), but that even the disciples who were with Jesus were tempted seemed a comforting and reassuring thought. Jesus told them to "Get up and pray, so that you won't fall into temptation". There's a sermon right there.

The more I know God, it seems, the more I need Him.