mondays for matthew

this morning i went to a Prayer Service for matthew. 

it didn't go unnoticed by me that it was scheduled on a monday. you know i'm a monday girl. mondays to me are fresh starts. new opportunities. anything is possible kind of days. 

so it just made sense in my mind that we would gather to pray for a boy that we were expecting a fresh start for today. it made total sense that a day that we usually grumble and complain to God about, would instead start with thanks and praise to Him instead. 

there's no complaining about a monday when you're praying for thousands of more mondays for a boy in the battle of his life.

and so we gathered. 100 or so of us took our seats in the school auditorium.

there was a moment of silence and the room went quiet. suddenly we were all alone with our thoughts, all alone with our prayers.

there's something about silent prayers that are powerful. 

something about being in silence-with no noise from the world-that makes us look harder, look deeper, think more.

the family pastor gave an update. matthew is still on the lung machine. he's still sedated to give his body rest. his mom is still there with him. there's still a long way to go.

after he spoke people were invited to offer prayers from their seats, loud enough for the group to hear. loud enough to be heard over our beating hearts.

there's something about spoken prayers that are powerful too. 

something about hearing a heart that brings emotion, and agreement, and boldness.

there were tears of course. you heard them before you saw them. from all across the room, men and women offered their tears, along with their prayers to God.

there were all faiths represented too. Baptist, Catholic, Episcopalian, Lutheran, Methodist and more. different religions but one Jesus. and that's all that mattered this morning. that's all that we needed. that's all that matthew needed.

i looked around and wondered if that's what Heaven was like. where we didn't find reasons to separate. where we just loved God and loved our neighbor. where we didn't look at our differences. where those differences didn't matter at all.  

and i wondered if God wished the world was like that. and i was thankful that just for a moment, a small part of it was.

you couldn't be in that room this morning and not feel the love. you couldn't be witness to those prayers and not be moved. and you couldn't walk away without feeling like you just spent an hour of your life better than you spent a lot of other hours before.

and i wonder if that's part of what God is doing here. i wonder if that's part of the good that comes out of the bad. i wonder if that's part of the miracle. 

if we're part of the miracle. 

because for those of us gathered in that room, for those gathered across the United States, for those gathered in Denmark, and for those gathered at Piedmont Hospital ICU Red Bed 4, it wasn't about anything this morning except Jesus.

there were no politics, no grumbling, no gossip. there was no hatred, no fighting, no judgment. for one moment in our lives we were exactly where we were supposed to be...gathered together for Him.

people have told me of Matthew. told me of his love for Christ. told me of his desire to make a difference.

and today is proof that he IS making a difference. 

and today is proof that he HAS made a difference. 

and today is proof that he WILL continue to make a difference.

happy monday, matthew. 

this one was for you. 
 

standing in the gap for matthew

i don't write a lot anymore. i don't have time.

at least that's the excuse i make. and that's what i keep telling myself.

but i do have time...i just fill it with other things.

someone once told me, "everyone makes time for what they want to make time for." and that's one of the truest statements i have ever heard.

we all make time for what we want to make time for.

and hopefully the important things don't slip by.

the important moments aren't missed.

the important people aren't forgotten.

and sometimes, when we're faced with just how fragile life is, we stop to think about that. and we remember what we should be making time for.

we remember who we should be making time for.

for a lot of us in my small town, that time is spent on Matthew Butler. we wake up thinking about him. we spend our days thinking about him. and we go to sleep thinking about him.

because he's sick. really sick.

and he needs a miracle.

but thankfully we serve a miracle working God.

and we're fully expecting that miracle for him.

and so we pray. non-stop. continuously. all the time.

we pray with our eyes open and our eyes shut. we pray when we're sitting down and when we're standing up. we pray long fervent prayers and quick whispered ones.

we pray through tears, down on our knees, asking Him to hear us. and we pray in thanksgiving, knowing that He already has. 

we don't know what else to do, so we do what we know.

we pray.

all the time.

because we are determined to stand in the gap for Matthew.

because we are determined to lower him down through the roof and bring him to Jesus.

because we are determined to flood the very streets of Heaven with our love for him.

and because we are determined to pound on the doors of Hell to remind "satan, you take your hands off Matthew Butler in the Name of Jesus, you CANNOT have his life!!

"everyone makes time for what they want to make time for."

so very true.

Matthew, this time...our time...all of our time...is for you.

praying, believing, standing on the promise that Jesus bore your sickness on the Cross.

keep the faith. keep the fight. keep holding on.

and we'll keep praying.

always.

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Luke Chapter 5
¹⁸ Some men came carrying a paralyzed man on a mat and tried to take him into the house to lay him before Jesus. ¹⁹ When they could not find a way to do this because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and lowered him on his mat through the tiles into the middle of the crowd, right in front of Jesus.
²⁰ When Jesus saw their faith, he said, “Friend, your sins are forgiven.”
²¹ The Pharisees and the teachers of the law began thinking to themselves, “Who is this fellow who speaks blasphemy? Who can forgive sins but God alone?”
²² Jesus knew what they were thinking and asked, “Why are you thinking these things in your hearts? ²³ Which is easier: to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’? ²⁴ But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” So he said to the paralyzed man, “I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.” ²⁵ Immediately he stood up in front of them, took what he had been lying on and went home praising God.