At Rest in the Storm (#688)

"I don't know how to rest in God's love when I fell like I'm being beat to hell," writes a listener to the podcast, which allows Wayne to follow-up last week's podcast about unanswered prayer. Joining him this week is his long-time friend, David Rice from County Wicklow in Ireland who was diagnosed with incurable cancer a few years ago. Instead of fighting for healing, he felt God ask him just to rest in his love through prolonged and painstaking treatment, including a bone marrow transplant. The process was grueling, but through the process, he discovered so much about trust and learning to see our circumstances from God's eternal perspective, rather than his own selfish preferences. Jesus put kingdom order on everything he touched, but that didn't mean he fixed everything so we could be at ease.

Podcast Notes:
Email Dave
The Joy and Challenge of Aging by David Rice
If You Can Help Us in Kenya

12 Comments

  1. Woow! …..As someone who has lived with heaps of religious dogma for decades, alongside seeking to support my brain-injured husband for over 43 years, my heart goes out to the dear lady whose email you quoted from, Wayne.
    I am grateful that the Lord has brought us out of the institution, & is helping us learn, albeit incredibly slowly, how to find Him in the storm.
    Had I heard this Podcast 6 months ago it would have shattered me. Everything in my life was telling me I was wrong, wrong, wrong, all the exhaustion I was experiencing was my own fault, & people were constantly telling me I just needed to trust God. Your book “He Loves Me”, which I first read probably 7 years ago, has enabled me to hold on to that truth through some completely devastating experiences, but it didn’t prevent my body becoming more & more exhausted. – My hubby having epileptic seizures during the night as well as throughout the day, did not allow for restorative sleep & kept my body in “flight or fight” mode almost constantly.
    I UNDERSTAND YOUR PAIN dear lady! & I’m slowly beginning to find God in mine. Please, it’s okay for the floors to remain unvacuumed! & it’s okay to want to cover you head & hide. Just remember there’s nowhere you can go that God isn’t with you. Please know that our Father wants to help you become aware that He is holding you. Keep calling for His help, & don’t be ashamed to ask for help from people around you. Maybe a local community group has folk who could come give you some practical help. If I wasn’t thousands of miles away in New Zealand, I’d come myself.
    Wayne & Dave, speaking of immaturity & what people “should” be doing when they already have an overwhelming “to do” list, needs to be done much more gently. Although it was really encouraging for me personally to hear of God’s leading in Dave’s life, I know when I was living “under a sewer-pipe” of ‘ ______’, back 6 months ago, I would have felt a COMPLETE failure & that there was NO hope for me.
    I hope my response to what was in many ways a very helpful podcast to me personally is seen in the light of my longing to help a fellow traveler whose journey I have a lot of understanding of. May Father help us all to be more empathetic as we seek to find the “narrow path which leads to LIFE” Please pass on my email address if you think t would be helpful.

    • Hi Joanne. I’m sorry you didn’t think we were compassionate toward the one who wrote us. I thought we were clear that we know how complicated life can be in the midst of troubles. It is difficult to cover every base on any specific podcast. We are always operating under the umbrella of “you are deeply loved by God” as we talk about ideas to help them reconnect with him. At that point, we are switching to the larger audience of people who aren’t in that place yet. I’m sorry that was clearer. If anything we said conveyed that she wasn’t doing enough, we misspoke. That’s never our point of view about anything. We don’t should on anyone, at least we don’t try to. Helping people in pain is a mix of empathy and compassion, as well as getting enough truth in there to give them some direction to moving forward. I would hope people know that promoting guilt and performance doesn’t even enter our thinking. If that’s what you feel, assume you misunderstood or that we weren’t careful enough with our words. Unfortunately, there’s only so much time on a podcast and we can’t possibly figure out all the ways our words might be heard. Please forgive us.

      • Thanks Wayne. As I said to Sue, hearing her email took me right back to a very dark place, that I still fall into way more than I would like. I still really struggle some days & on one of those days a lot of the things you & Dave said that could be misinterpreted, would have been. Thankfully I wasn’t in the darkness the day we listened to the podcast & Father used it to really encourage &, dare I say, give a little direction to my heart & soul.
        I am so, so grateful for your commitment to sharing the things you have learned in your journey. It certainly has helped me find a loving Father to replace the ogre that was understood by me from 50 years in the institutions that taught sin management. Thank you very much. 🙂

  2. Hi Joanne. I appreciated so much your sharing here. I am in a situation (financial, relational darkness w/ family) that at the moment is growing darker. Father has put people around me, what I see He is leading me towards is deeper dependence on Him. This means that while I see His hands in people and events around me, the “larger picture” of “learning to live loved” is that He has never left, is holding me closer in times of such painful extremity and He’s wanting that reality for me. Right now, emotionally it is SO hard. The reality around me seems bigger than Him. Thankfully, rather than condemnation, He is bringing me to wider space where I can share with Him this pressured reality looming larger than He is. I do not know what the outcome will be here…and I get to tell Him that I cannot let go of the injustice and mistreatment happening NOW yet. Perhaps the hope is that someday I will be able to and letting go of my own efforts and best thinking will happen gently with Him rather than me forcing it or “trying” so hard. Written in the midst of deep suffering…perhaps over time I will see more of Him. May He bless you.

    • Thanks for sharing Sue. When Wayne read your email I was taken back to a very dark place that I had been in (with family) where there seemed to be no-one in my corner, just a faltering hope that Jesus was there. He had made Himself real to me in a very tangible way prior to the slippery slope into blackness – Hallelujah! I think I would have just ended it all if that hadn’t been so. Being able to continue to catch glimpses of Father’s love & hear whispers of His voice have brought me to a better space & reading your post allows me to be aware that you are finding Him faithful to His Word also. Please know that I am holding you close in my heart before our wonderful heavenly Father. Sending love.

  3. So this was so wonderful Wayne, thank you thank you for being open to such precious conversations and then the provision of being able to share them with us. (I think I might be in love,LOL, that accent of David’s is so cool)(I know he’s married so am I, just kidding around). My husband Curt and I love love Ireland.
    Seriously I am reading Teresa of Avila right now and everything David said she says. But an Irish accent is a really nice touch from Above. Reminds me of the scriptures about Jesus speaking with such authority. There’s something in both of you, the speech has an authority and authenticity arising from real experience of the affection in the midst of horrible circumstances (life threatening qualifies as horrible to mortal bodies) . This is one way the Body of Christ encourages one another. In a real way, relational way. Not preaching at us but sharing with us.
    Wayne you told me something a long time ago, I am pretty sure it was you it sounds like you. We were talking about this very thing. That if I had a list for G-d of all the circumstances that needed to be different and exactly how they should be then I wouldn’t need the Relationship anymore. Today because of other things you have said over the years my relationship to pain, sorrow and suffering is all about pressing me deeper into the Affection. Not to outward fixes but an interior seeking of Trust and Rest.
    I’m with David in looking forward to death even enjoying the aging process because its a gift. The veil is thinning and the abiding and union is more constant and consistent. And I am 61. Glory to Glory means that when I die I will be radioactive.
    Thank you for sharing David’s articles.
    Good job all around.
    Joni. Okie sister

    • What? You don’t like my accent??!?!?

      I’m glad you were touched by the podcast. I love his journey and the depth of grace that decades of following Jesus allow us when the crunch is on. Love your journey. You may already be a bit radioactive already. :-). Blessings to you both!

  4. Thanks for your kind words Joanne. I notice that when He walks with us through pain, it gives wider space for us to offer comfort and point to Him when other hurting people cross our path.

  5. Joanne & Sue, I love your comments to each other above. I see it as the beginning of healing of the heart in itself. I too suffered a different major crisis and lost the ability to work. Even suicide came into my mind a few times. It was a shock since I knew Father was with me through the whole time. It’s been 11 years since I’ve worked and it is overwhelming at times to see what Father did through that time. I had felt blind and deaf to his presence but still I knew he was with me through it all. Bless you both for sharing, I loved it.
    I wrote about my story and it’s available to download for free online. Perhaps you both will one day consider the same to encourage others. May Father wrap his loving arms around you both.
    “I Will Not Die But Live” by Christine Cameron

  6. Thanks for your thoughts Christine. I recognize that when we are unable to see Him, He is still there. Right now I am finding that being overwhelmed it seems as though the darkness is larger than Him. My prayer and hope is that He will bring me into a greater freedom..thanks so much for your encouraging words and I will follow up with the other things you have written. Blessings Sue

  7. I love resting in the Lord. When I do this, I can feel every cell in my body vibrating to a higher frequency; almost like listening to my favorite song. I am now learning how to practice resting and trusting in the Lord. Letting go and surrendering; like floating in the ocean and looking up at the sky and just being.

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