I asked God what He wanted me to write about, and I believe I heard Him say, “Your Dad.” So then I asked God to clarify what He wants me to write about my Dad. And in the past few days a few things have come up.
In May of 2021 my Dad was about to turn 71. When I called him on his birthday though, I was expecting him and my Mom to be out kayaking in the beautiful springs of Northern Florida.
I was a little surprised to hear they had stayed home and hadn’t eaten much in the past few days. My dad looked tired on the video chat app, and didn’t seem to want to talk.
Normally, my Dad would be laughing, joking, and telling stories. But this time he excused himself to walk the dogs, and he just didn’t seem himself. My mom mentioned that his stomach had been bothering him.
The following month they ended up having to take him to the hospital. He stayed for 10 days, to address what was going on in his body. He seemed to be bouncing back by the beginning of July though.
My Dad was a strong , healthy, active man all his life. He ran a lawn care and handy man business, which kept him up and on the go. He was healthy, full of life and joy most days and would launch into spontaneous sermonettes at a moments notice. He would pray for his customers, ministering and sometimes leading them to Jesus. That’s why we were all shocked when he suddenly died on July 14th.
The day before he died he had been out with my brothers mowing 12 lawns. They all had watched a UFC fight that night and my brothers said my Dad complained his stomach was hurting before he went to bed that night.
The next afternoon I got that dreaded phone call. I remember the day so vividly. Because that day I had tested God.
You see God had been following me around with a number. 127. It was everywhere. When I looked at the clock it was 1:27, or 12:27, or 10:27, or 11:27. When I looked at the pressure cooker, or the gas pump, every single digital clock in my house, time stamps on videos, receipts, everywhere. It was haunting me. To this day, it still is happening.
What does this have to do with my Dad’s death? Well, that day I was struggling with doing something I felt God was telling me to do. You see, God had been telling me to rest.
I had just found out I was pregnant with my 9th child, and I had been to a naturopathic Dr. because of quite a few strange symptoms in my body. These symptoms were not seemingly connected with the pregnancy.
The Dr. had run a bunch of blood tests on me and found that I had been dealing with a long term autoimmune condition. Possibly from a virus that would return whenever I got run down. Which seemed like every other week. What was I to do? Less stress, better nutrition and more sleep was the prescription. I needed rest.
The thing is, my name actually means “Hard Worker”. It’s who I am. But God was now asking me to “Rest in faith Beloved”. (Psalm 127:2) He was asking me to “Work hard at resting”. (Hebrews 4:11) He was following me around telling me, “Emily, the journey is too much for you. Rest awhile, eat and rest.” (1 Kings 19:7)
God is so Gentle, Loving and Good. He had been speaking to me for quite a while. I didn’t want to stop all my projects. I had so much to do. It just happened to be that fateful day, the day that I said in my heart, “What if it’s not God. What could really be the consequences of not resting right now? It’s not even the weekend.”
In the midst of my rebellious craft project I got the phone call to pray. Dad had died either on the way to the hospital, or just after arrival. They were trying to resuscitate him. He never came back.
I stopped everything and laid in bed to cry and pray. I tried to rest then but I had a hard time. When I got up I had a stiff neck that hurt every time I tried to move it. That stiff neck took probably 4 weeks to get rid of. It was a sobering reminder to not be “stiff necked and rebellious.”
The stiff neck was accompanied by a sore throat, mouth sores, a cough, a sinus infection. And took a couple weeks to recover from. I had to try and recover as we endured a cross country trip to attend my Dads funeral.
From that day on I realized that this resting thing was a life and death matter for some of us. It all depends on what season you find yourself in. For me, God was saying, “REST!”
Before I knew my Dad was sick, I had asked God to specifically give me a scripture and a theme to encourage him with for the coming year, his 71st year. As I was going about my normal routine a message and a scripture kept reappearing.
Then on my Dad’s birthday I opened up an old devotional book I hadn’t looked at for a long time. When I picked up where I left off, the exact message that I had been feeling God speak to me was right there. So I put my little message on a coffee cup so he could see it everyday and be encouraged and reminded.
I think this might be what God wants me to share concerning my Dad. The scripture I put on my Dad’s cup was Psalm 127:2 “It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows: for so he gives his beloved sleep.” The cup also had a drawn picture of mountains, and said, “There are many mountains yet to be possessed. Rest In Faith Beloved”. That last part is the message I felt God had wanted me to tell my Dad for the coming year.
Psalms 127:1-5
1 A Song of degrees for Solomon. Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.
2 It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows: for so he giveth his beloved sleep.
3 Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward.
4 As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth.
5 Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them: they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate.
Psalm 127:2 says “It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows: for so He giveth His beloved sleep.”
1. It is time to get enough rest. For years I made a habit of staying up late to do this or that. It’s always so quiet at night after the children go to sleep. I always felt like I could get so much more done at night. But being chronically sleep deprived took it’s toll over the years. Not getting enough sleep messes with your hormones, your stress levels, everything if you make it a lifestyle.
That’s why God talks about it here, it’s important to rest. In fact, rest takes faith. It takes faith to hand your life, and your work over to God and say, “ok I’m going to sleep now.”
If you can’t sleep because your thoughts and worries keep you up, hand those over to God in prayer and go to sleep. “Let us Labor to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.” Hebrews 4:11