What you don't have you don't need it now

If you go back and study the ancient Greek, when Jesus said, "Where two or more or gathered, there I am also," I think you could find an untranslated phrase that reads, "Where two or more are gathered, there conflict is also."  And it's good to remember that -- where there is conflict, there is also Jesus.

I had to remember that this week as we had one of those family tiffs that all church families have.  After a meeting Tuesday night, I sat in my office thinking about the whole situation, and I commented to God, "Because you are God, I bet you are going to do a God-miracle thing with this whole situation in the next 24 hours."  And God did.  But God's miracle wasn't what I thought or what I would have chosen if I was the creator of the universe.  And yet what God chose to do was so much better...funny how it can work out that way?

But here's how God "miracle-ized" in my life within 24 hours--changed my heart, removed all bitterness and set my eyes on the new path.  And it all ended in my drive home Wednesday night.  After having dinner with some girlfriends in north Plano, I drove home 75, turned on the radio, and U2's "Beautiful Day" was playing.  And the first words I heard were the chorus, "What you don't have you don't need it now..."  That would have been applicable enough to the situation, but what made this even more meaningful is that this song reminds me of a woman named Amy who died of breast cancer when she was in her early 30s.

She was a gorgeous woman married to a gorgeous guy and in trying to have a child, they discovered her breast cancer.  She had that type that is fierce and strong and not easily treated.  She fought a strong fight.  And when the fight was over, what was left was a family on both sides grieving and hurting.  At her funeral, which I will always remember because I also co-presided at the communion table with a Catholic priest (something that will probably never happen again in my ministry), this song was played, "Beautiful Day," and ever since, when I hear this song, I give thanks for that which is the true gift in life--health.

Hearing the song this time meant a little more now that I'm expecting.  Amy and Ted wanted to have a child.  They never gave birth to a physical baby, but isn't it interesting that so many years later, Amy's spirit brought life to me while driving down 75 at 9 pm on a Wednesday night.