Announcing: It’s a Both/and Life!
How would you feel about taking a little journey with me right now through St Joseph’s hospital and wrestling with topics like, “What are You doing, God?” If that sounds like a perfect way to ruin Christmas, well, see ya next week I guess, ‘cuz that’s where I’m heading!
The first felt-need God used to lead us into our new home this summer was a desire for a more-conducive family space (ie, a great room and space that facilitates relationships instead of hindering it.) The first family in mind was our blood family - our four kids, son-in-law, two granddaughters, possible boyfriends/girlfriends, and yes, even our two granddogs. The extended Christian family was part of that vision, too, and so we’ve been thoroughly loving the fruit of God literally supernaturally leading us to this Baker Street house. To say that we were eagerly anticipating the Thanksgiving weekend would be a big understatement. Hopes (and faith-filled prayers) were high! And then… I came down with the flu. It could have been worse, because we still got some wonderful time together. But yeah, a wee bit disappointing.
Then, flu A settled into my lungs. Val got diagnosed with walking pneumonia a week ago, and my diagnosis came the next day. Long-standing readers here (back to summer of 2023) may remember my rather colorful pneumonia history - and the supernatural healing I experienced that truly has no medical explanation in August of 2023. So to hear that pneumonia of any sort is paying another visit? Not good Christmas card material. But wait… there’s more. My lungs worsened, so I spent 15 hours in the ER last Friday. I wasn’t in critical condition by any stretch - it’s just super important for me to be cautious and stay ahead of the curve. My wife concurs…
The ER visit turned into an admission, and I spent the weekend at my buddy Joe’s house. Val was exhausted from her health issues, too, and more than a little concerned about where my health was heading. Last Friday and Saturday, I was planning to be in Phoenix with friends from literally four (at one point) countries: the US, Canada, Mexico, and Switzerland, for the first JC2033 gathering of North American ambassadors. I had some small leadership roles in that… it had been planned since early summer… neither Geneva nor Canada are exactly just down the street, and I missed the whole thing. I filmed the pep talk I was scheduled to give Saturday night with my iPhone from the hospital room. Then Sunday night we had planned for months to have a full board, staff, and spouse dinner in our new home, celebrating Karen’s nine years of partnership [miss that announcement?], and meeting in person for the first time our new staff team member, Lexi King from Reno, Nevada [who we’ll introduce in an upcoming newsletter.] So that got scuttled, too. “What are you doing, God? Remember the 5 C’s from last week’s newsletter, Lord? I do. What went wrong?”
If we live in an either/or world that is not of God’s design, we and everyone around us are going to be miserable. Case in point: I believe God led Val and me to some super helpful reflection all day Sunday over some leadership from Holy Spirit that I might have missed six months ago… AND from a foundation of grace and unconditional love, with no room for the enemy’s condemnation to take up camp. It’s 100% true that I couldn’t have known 95% of what my Fall was going to look like when the JC2033 USA Phoenix gathering was being planned with my significant input. Condemnation over things I couldn’t have known - the old “hindsight is 20/20 reflection” - comes straight from the pit of hell. But it’s ALSO true that God knew all of it, well in advance. If I had slowed down more, spent more time seeking the Lord instead of relying on my own observations and what made perfect sense, it’s quite possible that Holy Spirit might have said, “I know this won’t make any sense to you now, but trust me. That plan isn’t My best for you.”
There are other explanations in the both/and life, too:
Does the enemy intervene and wreak havoc against the saints, or is God sovereign and in control? YES
In a broken world, do bad things happen with no apparent rhyme or reason, or is God always at work, bringing good out of bad? YES [Sidebar - if you read If It Was Easy Chapter 8 (Our Big Fat Greek Problem: how Western Thinking Threatens Unity) you’ll know God’s been speaking this message to me for many years. Western materialism is the outlier, both in the world today and throughout human history. “Walk by faith and not by sight” adorns a wall in our new home.]
Can we reevaluate situations that went south and discover clues we missed, while still living in a world marked liberally by grace and unconditional love? YES. I know God told me on Sunday, “Son, you’re trying. I know this. You’re working hard at abiding, stepping out of a lifelong task list, Martha mentality, unredeemed engineering approach to life, into a sitting at Jesus’ feet Mary mentality that seeks to lean on Me not just at a 30,000 foot view but in the details. I see you. I’m proud of you. And I decided to step in and help you out…”
In Season Two of J17 Ministries, I want to explore further the both/and life. I haven’t decided the format initially: YouTube, podcast, etc (if you have thoughts, share them!) But either/or’s that divert us from a Biblical perspective are killing us. Destroying us. Badly blemishing the Bride of Christ. Wrecking our mental health and perhaps the future of our nation. I won’t take the time now to unpack any or even list but a small sampling, but here’s what I want us to explore more in the future:
Is our best life marked by Spiritual discipline or Holy Spirit freedom? YES
Does the Bible call us to be pro-life or pro-birth? YES
Are we called to focused set-apart times of abiding in Jesus, or all day every day? YES
Is political quietism or political syncretism a huge temptation for most American Christian leaders? YES
Let’s pray together that Jesus stops getting chopped into little isolated pieces that don’t even resemble the One who entered our world 2000 years ago. Let’s partner in creative ways to to see the Body of Christ United for a Divided World. Join me in a both/and life!
Dave Drum, Founder