This Stinketh!

“‘Take away the stone,’ he said. ‘But Lord,’ said Martha, the sister of the dead man, ‘by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days.’ Then Jesus said, ‘Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?’” John 11:39-40.

Over the past week, I have been called by God to do something for which He gave me a glimpse of last year –putting on paper my journey through my sister’s cancer. Honestly, I have dreaded the call from the standpoint of removing the stone and peeling back the strips of linen from the graveclothes. The King James Version bluntly replaces the passage, ‘But, Lord…by this time there is a bad odor’ with ‘Lord, he stinketh!’ (Lazarus Awakening, Joanna Weaver) How I can relate to this call. When Beth was first diagnosed I began a Caring Bridge website which communicated the day by day update of her cancer journey. It also allowed guests who visited the website to sign her guestbook, and write prayers and daily encouragement. My dad, who also died of cancer a year after she died, signed her guestbook daily with hope and belief that she would get an earthly healing. Caring Bridge offers that all posts be converted into a soft bound book documenting the journey in which our family experienced. For me, these books felt like a graveyard with markers too painful to revisit.

When God called me to write this book (Take away the stone), He lay upon my heart that the outline would be in the Caring Bridge books. When my Mother brought them, I opened the first page two different times only to immediately close them as my pain arose. (Lord, it stinketh!). But God impressed upon me that if I was obedient in rolling the stone back, I would participate in seeing His glory. How could I say no?

As all of us are aware, God will call us to take away our stone and participate in what He is calling us to accomplish. We may be in a situation that leaves us feeling helpless, hopeless and quite frankly makes us cry out, ‘Lord, this stinketh!’ We stand on the other side of the stone wanting resolution but unwilling to invest in what stinks. How are we to see the glory of God without leaning against the Stone and cooperating with Christ? How is it that we ask God for a blessing, a reward, or a resolution but do not trust Him to remove the stench during the process?

‘For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. To the one we are the smell of death; to the other, the fragrance of life. And who is equal to such a task?’ 2 Co. 2:15-16.

I have finally taken away the stone and the aroma is not nearly as bad as I had anticipated…and I am seeing the glory of God!