"Blessed be Your name; on the road marked with suffering"

Here’s an interesting scenario: what do you say, as your introduction, when you haven’t written anything in nearly 3 months?  Do you quickly assure that you are, in fact, alive and well, even though many have probably wondered?  By the way, if that’s you, God bless you for your concern; yes, I am alive.  I thought about being silly about it by quoting the opening lines of 2002’s "Spiderman".  To re-introduce myself, I considered citing those iconic words from the beginning, where Tobey Maguire says, “Who am I?  You sure you want to know?  The story of my life is not for the faint of heart.”  ‘I’m Kevin Bauer,’ I might have said.  ‘I am storm-tossed, and probably not even the same man I was before; at this point, I’m a little older and wiser, but I am Kevin Bauer.’

Regardless of the introduction, I shake my head in amazement at the unexpected chapter that I have been in for a year now.  Matt Redman, in his classic song “Blessed be Your Name” puts it better than I ever could; “Blessed be Your name; on the road marked with suffering, though there’s pain in the offering, blessed be Your name.”  Later on, he sings this to the Lord: “You give and take away.  You give and take away.  My heart will choose to say, ‘Lord, blessed be Your name.’”

I imagined what I would say if you and I were able to sit down over a cup of coffee or something.  At some point in our conversation, as we were able to get caught up, I would bring up Jesus’ words in Matthew 7.  In verses 24-27 of Matthew 7, Jesus mentions two houses.  In both cases, Jesus says, “the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew” (verses 25 and 27).  Note with me that the storms hit either house.  In another place, Jesus said “it rains on the just and the unjust”.  The storms of life will inevitably hit.  But Jesus says that only one house stands; the one “founded on the rock” (Matthew 7:25).  Maybe at this point in our conversation I would declare that I have been storm-tossed, the winds and the floods have been pounding on my house; but, glory to God, the house is still standing, because Christ is my foundation, my rock.

At this point, I need to reiterate what I stated briefly after the “Spider-Man” quote earlier.  This chapter in my life has changed me; in many ways, I don’t feel like I’m the same person that I was a year ago.  I’m not sitting here claiming to be some perfect little angel.  No, in fact, God has used this season of my life to show me things about myself that needed to change – but that’s a whole other blog entirely.  The point is, as the Psalmist put it in Psalm 119: “It is good for me that I’ve been afflicted, that I may learn Your statutes” (verse 71).

God bless,

Kevin