Aaron’s Birthday (Part II)

Are not all angels ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation?
Hebrews 1:14

One day at about three in the afternoon he had a vision. He distinctly saw an angel of God, who came to him and said, “Cornelius!”
Acts 10:3

Last night an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I serve stood beside me.
Acts 27:23

I shared a little about what my family was doing on Aaron’s Birthday a few days ago, but I didn’t share everything. Missy and I took the kids over to my parents’ house and we had lunch together. The kids played with Teagan, Aaron’s youngest, and I visited the columbarium at the cemetery that holds Aaron’s cremated remains. Later, Missy and I took the kids to Washington Monument State Park just northwest of Frederick, Maryland. One of my favorite overlooks is there. Then we finished the day with good food at Black Hog BBQ and ice cream at Baskin-Robins.

But that wasn’t the best part of the day. God gave our family a unique gift the morning of Aaron’s birthday this year.

When Emily woke up that morning, she came downstairs, and the first thing she said to Missy was, “I saw my first angel!” When Emily woke up the morning of Aaron’s birthday, she saw an angel circling above her bed. She described yellow, shimmering wings, a long robe that covered down to its feet, and no face. She told me it was about as big as me. She could immediately discern that it was an angel and was not afraid of it.

Then, she spoke to the angel and said, “Go tell Jesus to tell Uncle Aaron ‘Happy Birthday!'” And as soon as she said that, the angel left. I believe the angel went and did just that. I love that Emily’s first thought when seeing an angel wasn’t about herself but was about Uncle Aaron. What a precious gift on such a sad day!

God was so kind to send an angel just for us as a sign of His comfort and faithfulness. And how kind of God to allow the angel to be revealed in plain sight to Emily. I believe it was there specifically to allow Emily to tell Uncle Aaron “Happy Birthday!”

And we have seen this over and over again when it comes to Aaron’s death. God has continued to show up in supernatural ways and has continued to speak clearly into this situation. Back when my brother’s accident happened, I wrote a blog post about how talkative God was. God’s kindness continues to amaze me in the midst of grief.

So now all three of my kids have seen angels at different times. And I pray that this only continues for them. That they would continue to know the reality of the unseen world right at our fingertips–the spirit realm that is so actively participating in our lives. Thank you Jesus!

Aaron’s Birthday

“I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten…”
Joel 2:25

Today we, as a family, celebrate my brother’s birthday. Aaron died in a sudden and tragic car accident back in August. It was out of the blue. It was unexpected. He was only 47 years old. He left behind a wife and three kids that are in college. One of the dominant feelings about his death was not just grief but the pervasive sense of it being unfair.

Even as a little kid I had a sense that things needed to be fair. I was given a deep sense of justice by the Lord, which reflects His own desire to bring justice into the world. This deep sense of justice would eventually lead me to help start an anti-trafficking organization. But it also causes the lack of fairness in the world to sting a little more.

It’s not fair that Aaron’s kids don’t get to talk to him or see him anymore. It’s not fair that his wife has to wake up every day without him next to her. It’s not fair that his two girls won’t get to walk down the wedding aisle with him at their side. It’s not fair that my parents don’t get to have their oldest child swing by their house just to chat. It’s not fair that my sister and I don’t get to joke with him and laugh with him and ask for his help with stuff around the house. It’s not fair that my kids lost their fun-loving uncle and all the memories they would have made with him as they grew up. It’s not fair that my wife lost her favorite Stephenson. Aaron was everyone’s favorite. There is a sense of deep injustice about his death.

And the reality of this world is that injustice is rampant. It’s everywhere you turn. We cannot be surprised by it because it is everywhere. No one makes it through this life without a story of injustice and suffering. No one. Suffering and grief don’t make us special; they make us normal. Sin has broken this world, and the enemy as exacerbated injustice as much as he is able.

So what do we do? What do we do when a life has been stolen from us? What do we do when years of memories and moments have been taken away without any recourse? What do we do in the face of an injustice like this?

What we are choosing to do is celebrate Aaron’s life and believe in the God who brings redemption to all things. We trust in God who promises to repay us for the years the locusts have eaten. We lean into the God who brings beauty from ashes, who brings life out of death. In the face of this injustice, we remember that God said, “It is mine to avenge; I will repay“(Romans 12:19; Deuteronomy 32:35). This is the nature and character of the God we serve. So we leave it to Him to do just that. And, in the meantime, we receive His comfort as we grieve:

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.
2 Corinthians 1:3-4

We miss you brother!

False Accusations

Sanballat and Geshem sent me this message: “Come, let us meet together in one of the villages on the plain of Ono.”
But they were scheming to harm me; so I sent messengers to them with this reply: “I am carrying on a great project and cannot go down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and go down to you?” Four times they sent me the same message, and each time I gave them the same answer.
Then, the fifth time, Sanballat sent his aide to me with the same message, and in his hand was an unsealed letter in which was written: “It is reported among the nations—and Geshem says it is true—that you and the Jews are plotting to revolt, and therefore you are building the wall. Moreover, according to these reports you are about to become their king and have even appointed prophets to make this proclamation about you in Jerusalem: ‘There is a king in Judah!’ Now this report will get back to the king; so come, let us meet together.”
I sent him this reply: “Nothing like what you are saying is happening; you are just making it up out of your head.”
Nehemiah 6:2-8

Nehemiah’s enemies were trying to disrupt his leadership and his ability to complete the mission for which he was sent. They try to distract him with multiple invitations to “talk.” They know if they can sap his energy and patience with endless conversation, he won’t be able to complete the wall in Jerusalem. They also wanted to get him isolated so that they could harm him.

But Nehemiah doesn’t fall for it. So after four rejected invitations, Nehemiah’s enemies resort to a typical tactic that we see used over and over against leaders trying to accomplish God’s mission. Sanballat starts with, “It is reported…” This is typical. Anonymous accusations are a classic tool of the enemy against leaders. Today it sounds like this, “Some people are saying…” They don’t want to be named. They don’t want to be held accountable for their false accusations. They just want to spread damaging rumors.

Then notice the second common strategy against leaders who are busy doing God’s work. The accusation itself is that Nehemiah’s leadership is all about an attempt to exalt himself. Whenever someone is leading something new, this accusation will always come. If the opposition can’t discredit the actual actions of a leader, they will try to discredit the motives. They’ll make false claims about “hidden, selfish motives” as a way to put the leader on the defensive. Against Nehemiah they claimed he was about to set himself up as king. They were claiming that his great leadership and the rebuilding of Jerusalem was really just about Nehemiah’s ego and selfish ambition.

The people of God did the same thing to Moses and Aaron when they were leading them out of Egypt and through the desert. Notice how “reasonable” their attack against Moses and Aaron seem.

They came as a group to oppose Moses and Aaron and said to them, “You have gone too far! The whole community is holy, every one of them, and the Lord is with them. Why then do you set yourselves above the Lord’s assembly?”
Numbers 16:3

The Lord is the one who called Moses and Aaron to be leaders of the people of God. But Korah and some of the other Levites didn’t want to follow their leadership. So they accuse Moses and Aaron of setting themselves above everyone else. Notice how Moses responds.

Moses also said to Korah, “Now listen, you Levites! Isn’t it enoughfor you that the God of Israel has separated you from the rest of the Israelite community and brought you near himself to do the work at the Lord’s tabernacle and to stand before the community and minister to them? He has brought you and all your fellow Levites near himself, but now you are trying to get the priesthood too. It is against the Lord that you and all your followers have banded together. Who is Aaron that you should grumble against him?”
Numbers 16:8-11

In other words, Korah wasn’t rebelling against Moses and Aaron; he was rebelling against the Lord. It was the Lord who set Moses and Aaron apart. It was the Lord who called them to lead. It was the Lord’s doing. To reject the Lord’s call on a person’s life and claim that it is arrogance, selfishness ambition, or a personal agenda isn’t just an attack on that person, it’s an attack on the Lord’s work in their life. It’s an accusation against the Lord. And if you keep reading Numbers 16 and 17, things don’t turn out so well for Korah. God gets rid of the rebellious group of Levites and confirms the calling of Aaron through supernatural displays of His power.

We need to be very careful about accusations we make against leaders, especially leaders in the church. The anti-authority milieu of our culture loves to rail against leaders in every level of society. And often, leaders give us every reason to rail against them. But in the church we need a different heart posture toward leaders. The apostle Paul’s advice to Timothy was this:

The elders who direct the affairs of the church well are worthy of double honor, especially those whose work is preaching and teaching… Do not entertain an accusation against an elder unless it is brought by two or three witnesses.
1 Timothy 5:17-19

When leaders are in the wrong, they need to be called out and held accountable by the other leaders of the church. We’ve seen too much abuse of power in the church that was left unaddressed. But we can’t let this lead us into an error on the other side of the continuum. If someone is being called into leadership, we need to honor that calling. Jesus told His disciples, “Whoever welcomes a prophet as a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and whoever welcomes a righteous person as a righteous person will receive a righteous person’s reward”(Matthew 10:41).

We need to remember that a calling to step into a greater anointing and a greater leadership role in the Kingdom is a call downward. It’s a call to servanthood. It’s a call to die to self and an invitation to go lower. Stepping into leadership in the Kingdom is not an elevation of self but a sacrifice of self. It’s a call to carry more weight and more responsibility.

The foundation of a building is the lowest place and the place that has to hold the most weight. That’s why Paul told the Ephesians that the Church is “built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone” (Ephesians 2:20). The apostolic and prophetic roles are the foundation of the Church because they must go lower. They must support everyone else. They must hold the most weight. They must be solid and level or the whole church could topple over. And they must be willing to endure, more than others, the false accusation of selfish ambition and self-promotion.