Knocked down, but not knocked out

Went back to Three Minute Retreat today. It was about the young Samuel responding to God in the night in the temple. "The Lord called to Samuel three times before Samuel recognised the Lord as the caller. We can be like that too. We know that God is present to us in our daily lives and in the people we encounter, but sometimes we don't recognise the sacred in the heat of the moment. Sometimes we need to be nudged into recognising God in what we perceive as interruptions in our schedules. Sometimes we need to be knocked over!" The prayer is, "Teach me, Lord, to hear you, and to answer, 'Here I am, Lord.'"

Fishing boat returning to Exmouth © Mike Temple

I suppose being knocked over is a good way to describe what it feels like to be told you have a terminal illness - knocked down but not knocked out, as J B Phillips' translation of  2 Corinthians 4 puts it: "This priceless treasure we hold, so to speak, in a common earthenware jar—to show that the splendid power of it belongs to God and not to us. We are handicapped on all sides, but we are never frustrated; we are puzzled, but never in despair. We are persecuted, but we never have to stand it alone: we may be knocked down but we are never knocked out! Every day we experience something of the death of the Lord Jesus, so that we may also know the power of the life of Jesus in these bodies of ours."

I'm still thinking about my co-author, Jozanne Moss, of course - who died on Tuesday at her home in South Africa. The tributes that have been coming in on Facebook all bear witness to the truth that in the fragile earthenware jar which was her body there was a priceless treasure, which others could see even though she couldn't. Her response to being knocked over was exactly, "Here I am, Lord."


There are many remarkable passages she wrote in I Choose Everything. This is one of the most remarkable: "Through my illness God has stripped away everything that I could possibly turn to for security, those things that we don't realize we put our trust in. So often we think we are trusting the Lord, when actually our faith lies in our abilities, talents and circumstances. I cannot be anything or do anything anymore. That may seem quite tragic to some people, but it has been such a privilege for me. It is so easy to get caught up in the things of the world, but I have nothing else to trust in. I have only God. He has shown me how to surrender completely – how to let go and let Him. I feel free! I am in His hands; He is the driver and I'm just along for the ride. I don't pray to my 'boss' any more; I pray to my Father, my Comforter, my Rock and my Refuge."

Well, she's completely in His hands now, and what she knew in her spirit then she now knows as a total reality. "Here I am, Lord." Free at last!