Therapy

Approximately two years, Bro. Grant Anderson survived a frightfully seri­ous car accident, with devastating injuries. Many brothers and sisters, and others — and especially his family — have given support and help. In this, the first exhortation Grant has been able to give since his accident, he reflects upon his ongoing therapy, and the lessons for all of us.

I opened an exhortation about three years ago, saying, “How good this morning really is because we are able to breathe, and in breathing we are taking part in God’s wonderful, beautiful creation. Just by sitting here in your chairs and inhal­ing and exhaling, you are erasing any doubt you had this morning. By listening to yourselves breathe, you are realizing that this morning is not just any Sunday morning, but ‘this is the day the LORD has made’. ”

I feel this now more then ever.

As you know, I was in a car accident coming home from an uplifting Bible camp up north on Manitoulin Island; it left me under a semi truck for over an hour. I suffered a severe traumatic brain injury.

I nearly died and my parents were told that, at best, I would be a vegetable.

It’s been almost two years later, and I am still recovering. Due to my injury, I am weak in this body that is here before you. But am I really different than any of you here? While it is always on my mind that I am in a wheelchair, there is a sense in which we are all the same. We are all battling the disability of sin, or the flesh.

In my recovery program, I have a lot of therapies. They include:

  • cognitive therapy,
  • physical therapy,
  • occupational therapy,
  • swim therapy,
  • music therapy, and more…

all geared to my recovery.

Therapy is just practicing something over and over again to become good at it. By repetition I’m trying to retrain my brain.

You, my brothers and sisters and friends, have also been very helpful in my recov­ery. Thank you for your love, prayers, patience, time, donations and so forth. Thank you also for this opportunity to exhort for the first time since my accident.

Yes, my life has taken a different path than the one it was on; it’s a path not chosen and a path not expected. My progress is measured in small improvements or in small victories.

I think we can find some similarities in the lives of Bible characters. Moses

Moses knew that he would lead. He was raised as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. He was raised to be leader in Egypt. But events brought an unexpected change in his path, a new direction in life. These events caused him to flee into the wilder­ness. It was there that he took care of his father-in-law’s sheep.

It was during this period that God appeared to him:

“And the Angel of the LORD appeared to him in a flame of fire from the midst of a bush. So he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, but the bush was not consumed” (Exod 3:2).

All the preparation of Moses during his first 40 years was toward being a leader in Egypt.

Instead, Moses got 40 years in the wilderness; we might say that, for him, the LORD prescribed “wilderness therapy”.

This new path was one of preparation to be leader in Israel instead of Egypt. He went from 40 years training as a member of the elite ruling class, to 40 years of training in humility, as a shepherd in the wilderness.

Then he led Israel out of Egypt. This was followed by leading the Israelites in the wilderness, where there were many victories, some small and some large. He found joy in God’s work: joy in delivering the law, leading Israel, judging Israel, and — more than once — saving Israel.

Finally, there was the water from the rock, where Moses gave himself the glory instead of God. Moses battled sin. Look what God said to Moses because of his mistake:

“Then the LORD said to him, ‘This is the land I promised on oath to Abra­ham, Isaac and Jacob when I said, “I will give it to your descendants.” I have let you see it with your eyes, but you will not cross over into it.’ And Moses the servant of the LORD died there in Moab, as the LORD had said” (Deut 34:4,5).

The incident with the rock (Num 20:6-11) takes place at the beginning of the 40th year in the wilderness. The journey was almost over:

“But the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, ‘Because you did not trust in me enough to honor me as holy in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this community into the land I give them’ ”(v12).

Moses didn’t receive the Promise. He saw the promised land from a distance, but the promised rest in that land was postponed. It was a different outcome then expected. It was a different course taken.

And Moses went through two completely different “course changes” also — the first when he left Egypt, and the last when he was told he would not be entering the Promised Land.

Gideon

Gideon’s life was one of preparation. We know he was a mighty man of valor:

“The angel of the LORD came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah… where his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to keep it from the Midianites. When the angel of the LORD appeared to Gideon, he said, ‘The LORD is with you, mighty warrior’ ” (Jdgs 6:11,12).

Gideon had the spirit of a leader and a chief. He remained faithful while others “did what was evil in the sight of the LORD”. Imagine how difficult it was for Gideon to live at this time. His brothers were killed, and the ecclesia was in a horrible state, yet he still preached.

Israel was oppressed for seven years — the people “were brought very low” (Jdgs 6:6). But here was Gideon working the threshing floor, beating out the wheat, when he had servants to do this. He took the role of a servant, pointing to Christ, even though he was trained as a mighty man of valor.

We see this man of action, forced into “threshing therapy”. This is not what he expected. Gideon was a faithful man, hiding from the Midianites, unable to change these circumstances, and forced into a path of inaction. He was forced to achieve small victories, preaching and providing food for his family, because his brothers were killed by the Midianites.

Then God answers his prayer. Remember the dry fleece on the wet ground?:

“Then Gideon said to God, ‘Do not be angry with me. Let me make just one more request. Allow me one more test with the fleece. This time make the fleece dry and the ground covered with dew.’ That night God did so. Only the fleece was dry; all the ground was covered with dew” (Jdgs 6:39,40).

God was ready, and Gideon had been prepared.

Finally Gideon leads 300 men in winning a great victory over a tremendous host of the enemy.

It was a special sort of therapy: Waiting seven years. Hiding seven years. Small steps leading to victory. A different path, one Gideon would never have chosen for himself.

Real victories only come on God’s terms, in God’s time, and in God’s way. David

Starting very early in life, David spent years in “sheep therapy”. He was the youngest of the brothers and treated disrespectfully by them. He was alone in contemplation with God. He protected the flock by defeating his enemies, the lion and the bear.

This therapy was preparation for a role not yet revealed; that was to be the king of Israel. Along the way, he won victories over all Israel’s enemies. He was the unifier and the peace-giver to the whole nation, again pointing forward to Christ.

When he became king, David desired to build a house for God. Yet he had been

“a man of blood”, “a man of war”, and thus he was denied his heart’s desire; he would not be allowed to build the LORD’s House.

But even on this unexpected road, there were small victories for David. He could take comfort in gathering the materials for the temple, more comfort in planning the project, along with Samuel, and also comfort in developing the music and rituals for the Temple and its service.

David prepared to build, but David did not build. It was a different path than he wanted. Often what we’ve prepared for, and what we want, doesn’t happen.

Our “therapy”

Can we relate this therapy to us? Aren’t we, right now, in spiritual therapy? Let’s take a look at ourselves.

Brothers and sisters, we must practice spiritual rehabilitation now:

  • spiritual cognitive therapy, by reading our Bibles and praying;
  • spiritual physical therapy, by walking a life in Christ;
  • spiritual occupational therapy, by serving others with our hands;
  • spiritual swim therapy, by staying ‘afloat’, and not sinking, in a world of sin; and
  • spiritual music therapy, by praising God in song!

We must work on these therapies, along with our master therapists, God and His Son. We must work on this with our brothers and sisters, using God’s word as a guide.

With small victories, godliness becomes easier as we practice it more. If we work with a willing spirit, God will help us through our imperfections and carry us the rest of the way.

All of us need to be in therapy; our goal is to work toward our spiritual recovery. If we are not in therapy, why?

We must learn that even very small victories are steps, taken one at a time, on the road to God’s Kingdom. Small victories are small steps, one at a time.

Christ

As we approach the memorials, let us now reflect on our Lord Jesus Christ. Think about some of the things he had to do.

During the first 30 years of his life, he had to undergo “carpenter therapy”. As he grew, he began to realize more and more of what was coming in his life, and what would be expected of him. But he still had to wait out his 30 years of preparation, and meanwhile do the ordinary work he was supposed to do. It was a therapy of practice and repetition, in simple tasks.

Thirty years of practice for approximately three and a half years of work. Three and a half years of work, culminating in the cross. All that preparation, and all that practice, leading to his death on the cross.

It is important for us to remember that Jesus could have chosen a different path. Instead, he chose the path given to him by his Father.

Were there small victories? For some time, there appears to be only defeats. The nation rejected him. His friends forsook him. The leaders condemned him. His enemies crucified him.

In reality, though, each of these “defeats” became a victory, and all together they added up to Christ’s great victory over sin and death:

“Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we consid­ered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed” (Isa 53:4,5).

There are small victories in our lives as we undergo therapies and battle sin. There are many paths, which we might have desired, that we have not taken. There are many paths into which we are directed, which we never expected. But all these paths may lead, by God’s grace, to the crown of victory given at Christ’s com­mand, in his kingdom.

Along with Moses, Gideon, David, and the many others who have practiced forms of “spiritual therapy”, may we find places in that future Kingdom. Let us ponder all these things, as we partake of this memorial meal of bread and wine.