No Power in Words


Posted on 12/08/2010 
by lothblogs

Life is so bizarre right now.  Things that I used to hold strongly to, I’m not sure I hold as tightly.  Jesus Christ and Him crucified is my bedrock truth, yet throughout the day we have been interacting with words and thoughts from man.  We woke up this morning feeling energized from the previous day’s news.  My wife is more than amazing, and as we walked to see Samuel this morning, there was an extra sense of praise from our lips for our Mighty King.  Yet what we were confronted with was indeed bizarre.
Samuel was there; eyelids red from a medication that keeps a heart valve open, chest rising and falling ever so slightly from a ventilator, tubes protruding from every angle that seem so foreign and alien to him.  I kissed his toes and held his hand, usually my first act whenever I see him.  I said a prayer over him, speaking aloud the name of Jesus, as I whispered in his ear my love and devotion to him.  Yet my countenance was positive as I lastly kissed his forehead and spoke to him about his family that wants to be with him.  My attention, as Kelly then said hello to Samuel, went to the nurses operating the ECMO machine.
“How’s he doing today?”  It was a simple question, yet loaded with hope.  “Are his gas levels in his blood doing well?”  You see, I was just assuming from all of the prayers from the thousands of people that he was going to be doing exponentially better.  I was wrong; it seems the levels from the ECMO were raised because the gas levels were not as good as the previous day.  My heart sank; literally I was shocked.  I remembered too, though, the doctors had told me it was going to be a day to day thing; one day good, one day potentially bad.  His urine output was bad today as well, that’s the first step in doing well on ECMO; he needs to have better kidney function and lose all the weight he has accumulated via water.
Words are very interesting when used by certain people.  It begs the question to me, “what is truth?”  For if the words, “30% chance of survival, doing bad today, Samuel has been doing poorly on ECMO, etc.” have power in them and are truth, then I can truly be discouraged and fearful.  That’s right where the enemy wants us right now.  He wants us afraid, he wants us discouraged.  But really, they are just words.  They are just statistics said by broken people who have a very limited knowledge on a few things.  But there’s no power in them; it’s just man’s attempt at trying to figure out the situation.  Man is not sovereign and his words are not power.
There’s only One who has power in words, and that’s our Creator God and logos Jesus Christ.  Christ IS the Word; the very spoken word when creation began.  When God spoke, the heavens were made.  When God spoke, man was formed.  When God spoke, Samuel began in Kelly.  When God spoke, Kelly’s water broke and ordained that the specific doctors would be working that day.  God speaks, and Samuel breathes.  God is the only one who speaks with power.  He spoke His Word to us in the Bible, and He speaks life to us today.
So I guess I need to encourage both you and myself right now.  Please keep praying for Samuel.  From man’s perspective, he’s not doing well.  Yet God has him right where he wants him at the moment; he has the power to heal.  There are no “bad days” in God’s plan of redemption.  But there is the reality that we are called to pray.  As it stands, thousands are joining hands for the life of my son.
We need to pray specifically for the water in his body to leave.  We need to pray that the ECMO machine slowly lowers and becomes less of a need day by day.  We need to pray fervently also that the life of Samuel will be a testimony of God’s grace and goodness.  I have been told that Samuel could be a source of revival in certain hearts, and I pray that is the case, but the truth is I am a little selfish.  God, I want Samuel.  I want to hold him, to kiss him and see him smile back at me.  I want to see him run on the beach, laugh and poke fun of his older sister.  I want to see him bless Kelly and annoy the heck out of his older brother.  I just want him so badly a part of my life so I can share my precious Jesus with him.
Many of you have wondered what it is you can physically do.  Sometimes Samuel receives up to four blood transfusions each day; he needs your blood.  If you are interested, would you mind letting me know and mentioning it in your response to this post?  I will give more information on it later, but for now, please pray about giving blood in Samuel’s name at Children’s Hospital.
And please, please please keep posting this on facebook, twitter, tumblr, etc.  Please reference Samuel in your own blogs and send out emails for people to pray.  God is doing something; let’s sit back and see Samuel’s life effect thousands.