Caught Praying

Daniel's co-workers were jealous of him. "The administrators and the satraps tried to find grounds for charges against Daniel in his conduct of government affairs, but they were unable to do so. They could find no corruption in him, because he was trustworthy and neither corrupt nor negligent. Finally these men said, “We will never find any basis for charges against this man Daniel unless it has something to do with the law of his God.”" (Daniel 6:4,5) Soon, they came up with a plan - one that involved Daniel's prayer life. The only thing Daniel could be accused of was his prayer life!

Daniel's prayer life was so consistent that it was used as the basis for charges against him. He continued to pray three times a day, irrespective of the laws of the land. He did not increase his prayer in the time of need, nor did he shy away from prayer in an attempt to protect his life. He was consistent in prayer - same time, same place and same position, everyday. (Daniel 6:10)

People knew about Daniel's prayer life. The administrators and satraps knew about it (Daniel 6:5). Darius also knew how faithfully Daniel served God (Daniel 6:16, 20). Jesus did warn against making a show of your prayer. Jesus' warning was against prayer motivated by people's praises, like the Pharisees did. That's quite different from the way Daniel prayed. He prayed even when it could cost his life.

It wasn't hard for Daniel's conspirators to catch him praying. They knew exactly when and where they could catch him 'red-handed'. How easy is it for others to catch you praying? Can you be accused of your prayer life?

I'm Now a Mom!

Me, a mom?? Hard to believe. It was as if yesterday when I was a carefree kid. But it’s been four months since I officially became the mother of a cute little guy!! John Baruch made his entry into the world on December 13th, 2012. He was expected to be born four weeks later. But God’s timings are different from ours.

It was my 36-week scheduled doctor visit. Danny had taken permission from office to take me to the doctor during his lunch break. As soon as I entered the hospital, my bag of waters broke (which means labour is near). The doctor examined me and I was admitted in the hospital for labour. Isn’t it too early? I am not even full-term. As Danny and I sat there that afternoon, recollecting all that had been happening, we knew God’s timings are perfect and He had been preparing us for that day. Not just us. Even our home was all set for the arrival of our little one. The crib was ready, so were his clothes and the car seat. We had even bought diapers. It surprises me that we were so prepared four weeks in advance, more so since Danny usually prefers doing things at the last minute. Friends had gifted us a variety of baby things. Yeah, friends whom we had known for hardly eight months in this foreign country!

In a few hours, I’ll be delivering the baby, how did we feel? Of course, it was a mixture of feelings. But if I have to point to one, we knew that God is in perfect control. It was just the two of us at the hospital. My mom was supposed to come in another two weeks, but her first grandson decided to come earlier.

Rewind to ‘one year back’…

A few months into our marriage, I came across this Bible passage in Luke 1:16-18. It’s about John the Baptist. (“He will bring back many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God. And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the parents to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”) As I read this, I just prayed that the Lord would give us a child like that – one who would bring many people to the Lord. On New Year’s Day, as the church service was going on, Daniel looked at me and said, “We are going to have a child this year.” Months passed, and it was in the month of May that we found I was pregnant.

That brought mixed feelings in me – Excitement, joy, fear, anxiety. How am I going to go through the childbirth part? I’ve heard much about the ‘unbearable labour pain’. When I cringe in other kinds of pain, I’ve sometimes had older women ask me, “if you are not able to bear this pain, how are going to bear labour pain?” I too had that question in mind. Early in my pregnancy, I had to make a choice. I will have to worry about the impending labour pain for the rest of my pregnancy or cast my worry on the Lord and just enjoy the pregnancy moment by moment. But, I didn’t know what to pray for. Should I pray for a painless delivery or a shorter labour? The verse which says, “By thee have I been holden up from the womb; thou are he that took me out of my mother’s bowels: my praise shall be continually of thee.” (Psalm 71:6) was a great encouragement. Now, I knew what to pray for. I just asked that God’s Presence would be real during the delivery.

Whenever I was faced with questions, discouragement or physical weakness, it was God’s Word that uplifted me. I learnt some of my pregnancy lessons from the life of Elizabeth, John’s mom. Some people who prayed over me quoted verses about John the Baptist. I just thought to myself that our baby should be named John, if it’s a boy. When we found out we’re having a boy, we decided to name him ‘John’. Danny suggested ‘Baruch’ after the scribe of prophet Jeremiah.

12/12/12 was the day I was admitted in the hospital. It was around 9 PM, when I started to feel the pain, though contractions had begun in the afternoon (pardon me, if you are not familiar with these terms. Anyway, it might be good to know them. Perhaps, it will be of use later on). In the hospital, women in labour are offered an epidural (pain relieving medicine injected into the spine). Most women take an epidural. Though I am not against taking an epidural, Danny had encouraged me that I could do it naturally with God’s strength. I had told my nurses that I don’t want an epidural; but I might change my mind about that. The pain started getting intense. Danny stood by me, encouraging me, playing Praise and Worship music, praying and reciting Scripture verses. I kept asking the nurses, “how much longer will it take?” As the pain started increasing, I had a thought about taking some kind of pain relief. Just then the nurse examined me and said I am almost ready to deliver. If it’s going to be just some more time, why bother with the pain medication? Then came the long awaited moment at 01:08 AM – and there he was! A little squealing human being drenched in blood and fluids. Tears of joy filled my eyes as all those moments of pain just faded away in the joy of holding my little baby.

On the day of birth

Four months have gone by so quickly, and it’s fun being a mom – though it’s not very easy. Trusting in the Lord to help me be the godly mom that He wants me to be, not a perfect super-mom that I wish I could be!!

A recent picture

Seek First '_____'

In August, it had been a few months for us in the US and we thought it’s a good time to buy a car. Till then, we had been walking to nearby stores; sometimes, we took the less frequent public transport; most times, kind-hearted friends offered us rides – especially for Danny to commute to his workplace. We got the money ready for the car and started looking for cars within our budget and as per our requirements. We searched the internet, told friends. All along, we knew in our hearts that God would provide the right vehicle at the right time. But we need to “do our part”, right?

During the process, we realised that ‘car’ was all that we were talking and thinking about. “How about this one... or that?” It’s quite true that we needed a car. We can’t keep asking people for a favour every day. But had we forgotten to just trust in God and be still? We both knew that’s what God was asking us to do at that time. Oh come on, we can’t literally “be still” in this case, can we? We need to do some search and research. We went ahead and did. Finally, one deal worked out for us – well, almost. We proceeded to negotiate with the seller. We were going to make the payment, when we realised that this was fraudulent. Thank God, we were stopped at the right time. It wouldn’t have taken us too long to have paid all the money we had at that time and kept waiting for the car forever!

After we recovered from the shock, now again, time to resume our car hunt. But this time, God’s Word was crystal clear – the very familiar verse, “But seek first His kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” (Matthew 6:33) ministered to me. From the previous verses, we know that ‘all these things’ refers to our physical and immediate needs. Like most promises in the Bible have a command, this one does too. We need to seek God’s kingdom and His righteousness. In our case, we decided to stop looking for cars, because that was occupying too much of space in our minds. That was a difficult step. We had to hold each other accountable on that. The other thing was to focus our minds on God, serving Him and praying for those who have not yet seen the Light. What about the car? We had learned the hard way to ‘be still’.

After a few days, when we got an opportunity to testify about God, Danny shared about how God had stopped us from being a victim of fraud. One person who was listening to it came and spoke to us later saying that he knows a good car dealer and he can help us get a car! Later that week, he took us to the car dealer and helped us decide on a car that suits our requirements. We drove back home in that car and we’ve been using it for the last few months.

At times, it’s hard to be still and wait for God’s timing and ways. But when we do, we can only exclaim in wonder at the way He works! I realised that God is able to work as much as we trust Him with our lives. God has put us on earth on His mission – that is, to seek His kingdom. When we do that, He takes care of all our physical needs. Yes, literally.

When an employer asks its employee to travel on business, the employer takes care of all his expenses. All he has to be concerned about is the task at hand. He would be a fool to spend all his time trying to meet his expenses and neglect his task. But, too often, isn’t that how we live? We spend all our time and effort in meeting our immediate needs that we forget about the greater purpose for our life on earth. The danger is that the worries of this life can go to the extent of choking the Word of God! “The seed falling among the thorns refers to someone who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, making it unfruitful.” (Matthew 13:22) Let us be careful to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, the author and finisher of our race.

“... That They May Be One”

Before Danny and I moved to the US, one of the things we prayed for is that we would get to be part of a “good” church. I remember someone asking us if we plan to go to an ‘Indian church’ or a ‘white church’. We said we were ready to go just wherever the Lord leads us. Of course, at that point, we didn’t really know what those titles meant. On our first Sunday in the United States, we googled for the nearest church and we went there. We walked about 20 minutes and reached Grace Outreach Center, a non-denominational, multi-cultural church. We could actually see people from different nations and different cultures attending church and also serving in the church. Though we hardly saw Indians that day, we were so comfortable there. Nobody stared at us as strangers, instead so many of them welcomed us warmly to the church.

Now, as we have become members of Grace Outreach Center and as we get to know more people personally, we get asked a lot of questions about our culture and our faith in Christ. But at the end of our conversation, we realise that we can identify with each other because we share this unique relationship with Christ. Our skin colour is different; we have cultural differences; we think differently, but because we are washed by the blood of Jesus, we have the same purpose; we have the same values and priorities. It’s a beautiful picture of the Body of Christ that people from different nations come together to worship Him. “There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:28)

I believe this is just a small glimpse of what heaven will be like, when nations and tribes stand in God’s Presence in unison. “After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb.” (Revelation 7:9)

Across the globe, God speaks to His people through His powerful, unchanging Word. It amazes me to think that God’s Word, which was written centuries ago, is still relevant to everyone, irrespective of culture, nation and time period.

On the other hand, it pains me to see ‘exclusive churches’. We have created divisions in the Church for the sake of denominations, nationalities, languages and even castes (at least the caste doesn’t feature in the name of the church)! ‘Korean church’ or ‘African church’ or ‘Indian church’, for example, is an oxymoron! In a way, isn’t that racism within the Church? A church is supposed to be inclusive of everyone. Of course, such churches might exist for different purposes and I am not to judge their motives. But if we can work, ride and shop with people from other countries, what stops us from worshipping God together with people from other countries? “But, there’s the language barrier, especially for those who are new to church” you may say. You might want to read again what happened on the day of Pentecost:

“Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard them speaking in his own language. Utterly amazed, they asked: “Are not all these men who are speaking Galileans? Then how is it that each of us hears them in his own native language? Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Lybia near Cyrene; visitors from Rome (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs – we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!” (Acts 2:5-11) That’s the power of God! They didn’t each have a church in their own language. People speaking different languages came together as one. For these foreigners, it would have been like it would be for me to hear an American preach or testify in Tamil! But, that’s the way the Spirit of God works when we come together in unity. So, instead of human methods, let us allow the work of God's Spirit.

“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who believe in me through their message that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you.” (John 17:20,21) Why don’t you and I be the answer to Jesus’ heartfelt prayer? As believers in the Lord Jesus, let us stand united. Let the One thing that unites us be the Blood of Jesus Christ, not just denomination, language, nationality, native place, caste or any other man-made interests.

Nobody Loves You? Love Somebody

The chief complaint of some people is: “nobody loves me”. We all long to be loved. I expect my husband to love me. I want him to listen to me and care for me. I also expect the love of my parents. I want them to rejoice with me. In contrast to human love from which we have a lot of expectations, we are privileged to be loved by the Heavenly Father, Whose love is much beyond human understanding and human terms of ‘love’. “Greater love has no-one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:13) This is the kind of love that God has poured out on us. So, truly, there’s never a time when nobody loves you, because God’s love lasts forever (Psalm 136).

But, while we are so consumed about being loved – either rejoicing in God’s love or complaining that someone doesn’t love us enough, we often forget that we ourselves are to show love. When I read Proverbs 17:17a (“A friend loves at all times”) yesterday, I was reminded of how exciting it is to sing “I am a friend of God... He calls me friend”. But, I rarely realise that God is someone to be loved. As one who claims to be God’s friend, do I really love Him at all times? He longs to be loved too, as a Person, in an intimate way. Isn’t that obvious when His greatest commandment is ‘to love God and to love others’?

God is NOT a supernatural machine, who processes our prayer requests, plans out our lives and provides for our needs. He is a Person, who is madly in love with you and longs to be loved back.

When we are absorbed in loving God and loving others, we won’t be too rigid about expecting others to love us ‘enough’. “Do to others as you would have them do to you.” (Luke 6:31)

Not Our Things, Anyway

We live in a nice, compact, one-bedroom apartment. When we arrived, the only furniture available were a bed, a wooden chair and a small old cupboard. That was good enough for the two of us. We could comfortably sit on the carpeted floor with our legs stretched. Of course, we had all the home appliances. But, we could not invite anyone home. Where would we ask them to sit? Not on the floor! Since our stay in the US is temporary, we decided not to spend much on furniture. However, we needed something basic – at least to invite friends home.

It was a Saturday morning, just three weeks after we had come to the US. Our new friends (we had just met them the previous day) came home. They live in the same apartment complex and they were introduced to us by a common friend. They work among Indian students and they have been helping them set up their apartments. So, they get a lot of used furniture. They said they could give us some of that furniture. That would help us! Within the next one hour, our apartment was furnished with couches, a working table, television and much more than we thought we need. We did not have to pay a cent!

That day, we thought about the people who would have actually paid for those things. These things probably belong to different people – we do not know who they are. I wonder if they would even know we’re using those things now. But, they had the heart to let go of those material things, which is a blessing to us. That reminded us that not only is our stay in the US temporary, but also our stay in this world. After all, we are not going to carry any of our ‘belongings’ with us! So, why get attached to anything on earth? Our destination is heavenly. “I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.” (Luke 16:9)

All the Way to Texas...

28 February

Yet another car ride along the GST Road, from our house at SP Koil (near Chengalpet) to my husband’s parents’ house at Vadapalani, Chennai. We have travelled this road almost every weekend for the last 6 months. But, this time, it is different. All our ‘belongings’ are bundled and fitted in a mini-truck that’s going along the same road, but in a slower pace. I look for our house key just to make sure it’s safe (as I usually do) and I realise we’ve given up that rented house. We are going to stay with Danny’s parents. For how long? We don’t know. For Danny, staying in Vadapalani meant travelling at least an hour and a half to office and another hour and a half back home. But why are we moving? Well, that’s one question we had to answer repeatedly. And the answer: Our US visas are being processed by Danny’s company for Danny to work for a project onsite and I will be accompanying him. When will be travelling? We don’t know. From what we hear, we are expecting it to happen in a week or two.

01 March

Our US visa interview is scheduled for 15th March. That’s two weeks from now. Well, by our
20 March

From early this morning, I have severe toothache. So I check with the dentist and the dentist suggests extraction of my wisdom tooth, that is in the process of coming out. I am started on antibiotics to reduce the pain and swelling. I am thanking God that our visa interview was cancelled. Otherwise, we would have been preparing for our travel now.

In the evening, we get an e-mail indicating our new visa interview appointment on the 3rd of April. To accommodate the delay in the travel date, Danny has moved to a different track in his project, where he will be replacing another onsite person. This person, who will be leaving Plano, Texas has offered to sub-lease his apartment to us. Otherwise we would have to go there and then hunt for a house. So, we gladly agree. That gives us yet another reason to thank God for the delayed trip. The house is ready even before our visa! What can we say? That’s how the Lord works.

23 March

After three days of suffering with toothache, Danny takes me to the dentist and my tooth is extracted easily. Considering the severe pain I experience and the different diet pattern I have to follow, I am thanking God we are not in the US or in SP Koil, where we would have been by ourselves. Since we are with Maama (father-in-law) and Athai (mother-in-law), they take good care of me. In fact, Maama was the one who took me to the dentist three days back. If things had worked according to our earlier calculation, we would have been travelling around this time. Thank God the trip is delayed!

03 April

Today is the visa interview. With all documents in hand and knowing that God’s way surpasses all human effort, we appear for the interview. Danny is asked a couple of basic questions about his education and we are told that our visas are approved. It was over in less than a minute. Finally! After the long wait, we now have some answer for our friends and family. We thank God for one more step forward and we start preparing for our travel. Now the next question... When do we have to travel? Our guess was 9th or 10th of April. With that, I start calling up family and friends and telling them the news.

08 April

Our preparations for the travel are on full swing. Our purchases are almost done. My parents and sister want to come and see us off. But, when would they plan to come? We don’t know the dates yet! My mother’s students are doing their board exams and she needs to be present with them (at least for the subject she teaches). She needs to be told at least two days in advance so that they can plan accordingly. Nevertheless, they decide to come on Tuesday afternoon and leave Wednesday early morning. That’s the only convenient slot for them. Irrespective of when our travel would be, they would spend some time with us. Of course, they and we would love them to see us off at the airport. But, in the given situation, this is the best we could do.

We do our final lap of shopping today. We end up waiting for an hour in the queue to bill our purchase. We come out of the supermarket grumbling about the poor service and the lethargic staff, only to realise that I’ve lost my mobile phone! The phone is gone along with all the contacts stored in it. Thankfully, I had written down a few important phone numbers on a notebook just a couple of days back. At the end of the day, we look back and see uncertainty all over. But, we choose to believe the unseen – My redeemer lives! Danny reminded me to read Habakkuk 3:17-19. After all, our situation is nothing compared to that!

10 April

My parents and sister arrive in the afternoon and I have a good time with them. Tired of calling Danny again and again asking him if there is any progress, I decide to stop calling him because the answer is always negative or unsure. Around 2 PM, Danny tells me that we might have to take the flight that departs early tomorrow morning. But still, it is not confirmed. Anyway, now that the packing is done, I am prepared for anything. “Just give me an hour’s notice for me to get everything ready” I tell him. By 7 PM, Danny tells me that the tickets are booked and the flight is at 3:30 AM tomorrow. We have to leave home around 12:30 AM. Quickly, I get things ready for our departure. My eyes are filled with tears of joy at the way the Lord works. My parents and sister are here at exactly the right time, though none of us knew it would work out this way.

11 April

We land at Dallas, Texas after a long journey. We exclaim at His grace with grateful hearts “How great is your goodness, which you have stored up for those who fear you, which you bestow in the sight of men on those who take refuge in you.” (Psalm 31:19)

I would love to explain in detail how the Lord is leading and providing for us here in the US. But, since it’s already been a long post, I choose to wind up.

Though we don’t understand why God allows certain things, we trust and believe Him because the Word of God says, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.” (Romans 8:28) Some things make sense at a later point in life. Many others, we will perhaps understand only when we reach the other shore! Let us trust Him and wait for Him in all circumstances.