God Cares

An interesting memory came up tonight during the Food Bank ministry time here at Triumph. Mary, Betty Jo, and I were talking and I somehow lapsed into talking about Bon Wier, Texas. My uncle pastored there for like 35 years. Now Bon Wier is country! Literally. The biggest thing in town is a closed down saw mill, three churches in a huddle, and a post office about the size of my living room. In Bon Wier, people eat country style! Sometimes even strange things--like black bird stew (Crow) and squirrel dumplings (head and all).

Now on to the story. One Thanksgiving all of us preachers (about 7 or 8 of us) were sitting around the table when my uncle started talking about his sick hog (one being raised for next year's dinner) and how it had not eaten in days. All of this led to the idea that God heals with laying on of hands--and if we could pray for people and it work, why not a HOG! At that every preacher stood up, with a bottle of oil in hand, and we went out to pray for that hog! My brother Vernon and myself reluctantly followed along grumbling and complaining about this "dadgum" idea (you'd have to know Vernon)! We--being the city preachers--had no value system for this hog I would suppose.

I know you are thinking just like we did, "Prayer for a hog in the laying on of hands and oil fashion!?!" Yes! We ( mostly they) did pray, and yes, that hog ate at that very moment! That hog lived healthy until the appointed time to become next years dinner! God healed that hog I tell you! My brother mumbled something like, "You would know that God would heal that 'John Brown' hog just to show me a lesson!" (you'd have to know Vernon) I guess God really did care about that hog because my uncle cared about that hog!

With that said, can I attest that God does care--even about your hog! What bothers you, bothers God! He is highly interested in what you have going on! This memory stands out to me as a testimony of God's care for our cares! We may look at our circumstance as not important enough for a God as big as ours to bother with! We may have the impression that this King of kings is too busy to mess with our mess! But the reality of the God that I serve is that He cares about our cares! If you are carrying a concern, he is concerned--no matter what! The bible tells us to "cast our cares on Him." Instead, many times we cast away our confidence and carry all of our cares!

Perhaps we can reverse that order! Let's learn to cast our cares and carry our confidence! Hey, God healed my uncles pig! What do you need him to do for you?

Go for it!!

Pastor Rob