Dan Alcantara

Category: Meditations

  • how do we cope

    Kim Riddlebarger recently shared a very helpful word about prayer during trouble in which he said:

    But the most important thing of which I can remind them (myself as well) is that we all should be praying that God’s will is being done on earth as it is in heaven (whether that be in ordinary Lord’s Day worship, in prayer meetings, or in family and private prayer).

    This stuck out to me because it has been my primary experience through the years. When my wife and I waited to find out whether or not the baby in her womb still had a heartbeat, we prayed. When I found out that a visa to return to the UK had been declined, we prayed. When I found out that my dad was in a coma, we prayed.

    One of the sad facts of life is that we go to pray only as a last resort. We rightly pray because we feel helpless but having this attitude robs prayer of the power that is there. Why? Because when we pray we are, spiritually, entering the throne room of the God who created all that we can and cannot see and who upholds all of creation by his powerful word1.

    If we want something done by the government, we write to our MP but our MP might not be particularly useful or have much of a voice. When we pray, we are heard by the very source of life and existence himself.

    1. Hebrews 1:3 ↩
  • a mysterious grief

    a mysterious grief

    We live in a world where people are desperate for community. Most of our interactions happen via the internet or some kind of screen. If you go into a McDonalds, you don’t need to go to someone to place an order, you can just use the massive screen1. My kids spend more time with their friends via WhatsApp than with them in person.

    But there is something fundamentally different for the Christian. When you become a Christian, strangers become family. As a missionary, I have had to start over again with a new church multiple times. In each case, the people I am amongst in the congregation become family. I even experienced this during short term missions when I was a teenager. Showing up at a YWAM base, being introduced to Christians from all over the world2, we all became really close really quickly.

    I got to experience this again this week, but it did not go as planned.

    Because this new friend and brother-in-Christ died suddenly. The night before, so full of joy and life. But now, he is no longer with us. We don’t know why, only that he went into cardiac arrest. I’m not sharing more details because I am not sure how public it is being made just yet.

    But the point I want to make is that this particular experience of grief is unique to the Christian life. Why? Because we are united and made family by something stronger than natural birth.

    Writing to a church somewhere, John the Evangelist said this:

    Beloved, it is a faithful thing you do in all your efforts for these brothers, strangers as they are, who testified to your love before the church.3

    Love for another church was demonstrated in support for that church. In giving to a church filled with people that they don’t know. In giving to a church of strangers yet giving with love. This can really only come about as a result of being united to Christ. Yes, it is possible to feel motivated to give to relief efforts through charity without being united to Christ. But it isn’t possible to give as though you were giving to family. Not really.

    The Christian life is one of knowing true community that unites people from every possible background. It binds them to one another in a way that is stronger than family, stronger than friendship, and stronger than death. Why? Because they are united by the God who upholds all of creation by his powerful word. Because they are united by the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus which brings the promise of life to all who believe.

    1. I don’t go there very often but this method of ordering does at least ensure that you know exactly what you’ve ordered… ↩
    2. One year, there was a team from Canada and a team from Egypt. ↩
    3. The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (2016). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, p. 3 Jn 5–6. ↩

  • he gives to his beloved sleep

    For the last couple of years, we have been struggling to sleep well. This isn’t due to the stresses of ministry or raising teenagers in Scottish high schools or even due to financial struggles1.

    It all comes down to a mattress. The very thing upon which we sleep.

    It is still under warranty and we had finally had enough, but knew we could not afford to buy a new one. And so we reported the issue and had it inspected. Our hopes weren’t high. Online reviews of the company seemed show that everyone had the same problem.

    Then the inspector came to see if the mattress was actually faulty and his exact words were, “That’s the most defective mattress I’ve ever seen.”

    One of the more comforting lines of Psalm 127 is there at the end of verse 2:

    for he gives to his beloved sleep.

    Over the years, we have continued to experience God’s kindness. Sometimes it comes in the form of simply having the strength to carry on (like when we had an unexpected international move). Other times, he has provided exactly the thing we need to fix a problem.

    In both cases, he has proven true to his word. This situation is just a small reminder that this is still the case.

    1. Nothing like a good, old-fashioned cost-of-living crisis, right? ↩