Today was a beautiful day, weatherwise. Cold, clear, sunny, slightly windy. Only got out a couple of times. Had to cancel services this evening, since our parking lot is still snow/iced over. Stuff is melting, but after the sun goes down, it freezes right back up, so we have a layer of ice over a layer of snow. Makes for interesting footing. And with a number of folks in our congregation sure footing is a serious issue.

HUGE news, almost forgot. Last Saturday, two of our Mexican friends left in a 12 year old Ford Aerostar minivan that needs $2,000.00 worth of work done on it to go back to their hometown so that one of them could be with his wife as she goes through an operation to remove some tumors. They bought the thing for $600.00. It had 177K miles on it, and I fully expected to get a call from them before they got out of the State saying they'd broken down.

I first heard from Valentin on Sunday morning, at 10:55, just as I was WALKING INTO THE SANCTUARY ... they were at the state line between Georgia and Alabama.

This morning, I walked into the bedroom and my cellphone was buzzing. I'd forgotten to take it of vibrate from yesterday, when I was doing some visiting. there was a voicemail message from Valentin telling me they'd gotten to Lucio's house about 8PM last night. The car did fine, and they were well.

I hated that I didn't catch the call, but I was thrilled to hear the message. Leslie and I sat on the end of the bed and said a prayer of thanksgiving and cried a little bit.

When I dialed up my connection, there was another message from Gayle:

-----Original Message-----
From: gayle chatham
Sent: Wednesday, January 28, 2004 8:23 AM
To: kennyp@stickdog.com
Subject:


Kenny,I was awake alot last night and I had this thing that I had to ask you.I always seem to ask God why?? But Why can't we blame The Devil!! I know you think I have really lost my mind but I am trying to get on the right track.Sorry for bothering you but I have Faith in you and I feel comfortable asking you what I consider simple questions! In Christian Love Gayle and Family.I will be going to visit Karen today and will update you.


*****

My reply:

-----Original Message-----
From: Kenny Park [mailto:kennyp@stickdog.com]
Sent: Wednesday, January 28, 2004 11:20 PM
To: 'gayle chatham'
Subject: the problem of evil


Sorry for the delay in responding, Gayle. Had to mull over it for a while. It's a really good question - what role does Satan play in this?

BTW -- no, I DON'T think you've lost your mind. the fact that you are wrestling with these questions only proves to me that you've GOT your mind - ALL your mind, and heart, and soul and strength engaged in working out what you believe and why ... and how that relates to the reality of life - and PLEASE know that hashing out stuff like this is where I draw MY strength ... where I work out what I believe, and how I can best explain it ... verbalize it ... make it .... preach, as it were. Thanks for trusting me enough to ask the 'simple' questions ... but I would shy away from your using the word 'Faith', I know what you meant, but the word 'faith' carries a really "heavy deep and real" meaning for me, so it makes me uncomfortable when it is used in relation TO me. That's probably a peek into my weirdness... sorry. :-)

Also, could you please let me know what arrangements are for the funeral?

OK. here's where I see Satan's power most clearly defined. what is he called in the Bible? 'the father of LIES'.

Satan's power is ... smoke and mirrors. He has no power over ... us or anyone, unless we give it to him. We MUST live in that reality -- that Christ conquered Satan, conquered death, and he is defeated. was, is, and will remain defeated until the end of time. That's what it means to Live-in (as in usher in) the Kingdom of God.

If we lend credence to what he says - weight to his words that ALWAYS tear down, that ALWAYS cut, that ALWAYS push you away from truth - from God, from Christ- then he gets the power ---- that is MY biggest struggle with Satan on an almost daily basis - hearing him tell me I'm not good enough, not mature enough, not educated enough, not prepared enough ... not [fill in the blank] enough to be who God wants me to be, to DO what God wants me to do...

We CAN blame Satan, but that gives him power in this situation that he doesn't have. It gives him attention he doesn't deserve. It draws us away from the tasks at hand: grieving and healing.

The power he GETS when we 'blame' him is this: he becomes 'responsible' for what happened. That means he had control over the situation, and I don't believe he did. He didn't cause the temperature to drop and the ice to form and the truck to skid. The laws of physics did that. But Satan is nothing if not an opportunist. He WILL grab any and every opportunity he sees and try to turn it to his advantage - for example: Phillip's son might start asking himself why he didn't ask to leave earlier, or later, or why they didn't sit and talk longer, or why did they sit and talk so MUCH ... Karen is going to ask herself why she didn't say something as they were driving, she's probably going to think of a million things that she might've done differently, to stop the accident. And the ONLY thing THAT will accomplish will be to make both of them start blaming themselves for this. The bottom line is, it doesn't change the horrible fact that Phillip is no longer here, but it DOES affect their ability to move forward through their grief in a healthy, redemptive way and live a life that would have made Phillip proud of them. Any amount of time we spend focusing on Satan takes away from time and energy focusing on ministering to the family and finding ways to be Christ's presence to them.

Does that make sense? What are your thoughts?

Please know and let Karen know that Leslie and I are praying for you all and the rest of the family daily.

G&P

Kenny