I never expected to spend the first week of February of this New Year in the hospital. One moment I was in my office on a Saturday getting ready for church and Chris Lister’s ordination, and the next moment I was lying in an emergency bed at the University of Pennsylvania Hospital. No one, including the doctors, really knows what precipitated the bleed in my abdomen that landed me in the hospital. One doctor suggested that I may have injured myself shoveling three feet of snow during that bad storm in January. (By the way, I don’t plan on shoveling snow anymore!) Another doctor suggested that it was spontaneous and that we can’t know for sure what caused it. Fortunately, the bleeding eventually stopped and surgery was not needed.

I’m very grateful for the nurses and doctors at the University of Pennsylvania Hospital who took such good care of me…again! I’m grateful for my wife, Amy, who stayed by my side and has helped to nurse me back to health. I’m also eternally grateful for your prayers, cards, emails and other expressions of care and concern. I consider myself very fortunate to be surrounded by so many wonderful people who have helped me through this ordeal and others. It was wonderful to be back on February 21 and I deeply appreciate the warm welcome I received.

On that Sunday I preached a message about the temptations Jesus faced in the wilderness at the beginning of his ministry. As Luke tells the story, he was tempted three times by the devil but never yielded to temptation. He was tested but passed with flying colors.

We all face times of testing in life, don’t we? Sometimes it’s an unexpected illness or hospitalization or a challenge at work or a family conflict or something else. Life seems to be sailing along pretty smoothly and then suddenly we look around, as the ancient Israelites did, and wonder, “Where is God?” Even Jesus, in the midst of the pain of crucifixion, cried out in anguish, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” And yet, despite the testing he experienced on Golgotha, he finally prayed to God, “Into your hands I commend my spirit.” And thus the pain of Good Friday became the unspeakable joy of Easter.

Whatever challenges we face in life, we too must be willing to entrust them to God. We must claim his presence and his power and his promises. That’s the lesson I learned once more while in the hospital a few weeks ago. It’s a lesson I hope that we can all learn as we continue to make our way through the Lenten season and ultimately to a wonderful celebration of Easter.

Blessings,

Pastor George