Of Faith, Obedience and Silence

For the past several days my mind has been revolving around an enigma, very strange things going on in my private life, things which certainly point to an ongoing attack by evil, a limited source for it to have originated from and yet God's call for my obedience.

For weeks now, I have been getting emails to my private account of an evil nature.  Yeah, I have my public account which is tied to this blog, however, I have a private address known only to my family members.  However, even at that, I get no emails from anyone in my family, we talk via phone and FaceBook constantly.  It has really only been used by my estranged daughter and niece.  So, as I said, limited resource to have disclosed my email address from, if that had happened at all.  Yesterday, I thought I would end this stupidity from whomever it was sending those daily multiple emails and ran down their IP address - they originated from where estranged daughter had an interest in serving as a missionary to and she has several "friends" there.  Okay, that  is weird and yeah, I could see her getting one of her friends to do this so as to prove I am the evil she now believes.  Sorry, but I am not whom you think I am.  Yesterday, I blocked that IP address because things got weirder.

Yeah, yesterday came with an invite to have a new friend on FaceBook, complete with photos.  It could have been someone else, whom looks a great deal like my daughter (NOT!), but just to be wise as a serpent, I hacked the originating IP address of that FaceBook account.  Interestingly, this one came from where daughter had served as a missionary many years ago to and to cinch it, there were already had two of her friends on there whom I remembered when we shared FB accounts with one another.  So, yeah this one was either her friends being cruel to her or flat out from her trying to snare me.

Now, what are the odds?  Two flat out evil offers, both originating from places she was associated with.  Both I believe to prove I was the kind of person she believes me to be.

I turned down the friendship offer and the account disappeared from FaceBook almost instantly.  Interestingly, it proves I was right, it was evil attempting to lure me, else why would it disappear when it failed to snare me?  And should my daughter actually be innocent of this, then again I must remind her that photographs taken during moments of great intoxication, are forever.  And really, my private email address, I would appreciate remaining private, just as I have honored your privacy but not "stalking" you, it is reasonable to expect the same.

So I have thought on this weirdness and am reminded of Zachariah - okay only in my mind is this obvious ... :

You might remember Luke 1:5-25 and 57-80.

Zachariah was told what God was going to do, but he chose to disbelieve.  So, for his disbelief, his voice was silenced until John (Jesus' cousin) was born.  His silence became a sign for the truth of what he had been told.  And EVERYONE knew it!

So there are three ways of looking at this and learning from it:

1.  When you are being silenced, you need to examine why and correct where your faith in God has gone wrong.
2.  When God is being silent in your life you need  to read, meditate and pray to know the source of the silence.
3.  When you are being obedient and have been silenced, you have to continue to be obedient to what God has told you.

So my family, my ex-friends, my church, my pastors and my estrange daughter all firmly stand on the first option for me.  And like the stubborn German I am, I stand solidly that I am of the third classification - only remaining friends agree with me on that one, but then they actually bothered to know me and look at the evidence before deciding not to condemn me.  I can only stand in place in obedience, even if at least 120 times this year I would have rather grabbed my cane and started walking to Argentina!  But, then that would have proven I was guilty to all!  Except to daughter, for she knows what that reference means.

Verses 66-77 are so beautiful!  Here Zachariah has been silenced and now can speak and agrees that the son's name will be John (probably a bit of a scandal since it was not a family name).

Zachariah did not expect a miracle, did not believe one possible when he was told there would be one and so God had to smack him upside the head to get his attention long enough to understand he was in for a miracle!

So, in like manner, even though my daughter has run away, does her best to attack me as she is able, I stand firm because God told me to.  I pray daily for her because God told me to.  I expect her to return because God said she would.  I will remain obedient because I am that stubborn old German.  It is called faith, it is called obedience, it is called for in the silence of my life in being able to bring her to where she is supposed to be.

But do not believe this does not bring its frustrations, as my poor Niece can affirm, the lure to run away is there but unlike Jonah, I already know I can not hide from the face of God, do not want to get swallowed until I learn my lesson, etc.  So, I stand, taking the rebuke from all, daily, in my face hatred for what I have not done but been accused of.  I will pay whatever the cost required for my daughter to return - in my innocence, because it is all I have.  From my perspective, if my family is reduced to only the size of my niece and estranged daughter, so be it.  It does not mean I do not love my family, for I do, but it does mean being obedient to God means more.

And poor Zachariah, he too learned a lesson and he stood and he waited, when he did not have to, and was mightily blessed for it.