2: This Is the Key to Life

We’re in this series on taking a coach approach to prayer. Last week you answered some questions about your prayer life. This week I’m going to share something personal. Usually a coach doesn’t divulge much about his own life—the coach approach is all about the client.

But the point is worth making, and the story important to tell, in making it.

A few Christmases ago, I visited the hospital with chest pains. I was 36 with a wife and three children at home. The chest scans revealed I had a blood clot in my lung. The clot was on the edge of my lung, away from the nerves that would have earlier signaled its presence. Had it not been caught, I may have died.

The doctors admitted me to the hospital, where I stayed for a week. During that week, my right leg went numb, which led to a brain scan. The brain scan revealed an unexplained mass in my brain—a brain tumor? First the blood clot, now this. This was not the Christmas my family had envisioned.

But it was in my hospital room that the Father offered me an unexpected gift. After the visitors had left, I started thinking about death—the blood clot, the brain tumor, what the heck is happening—and it was then that the Father said the most remarkable thing.

It was not a loud, thunderous voice that shook the walls or even a voice that I heard with my ears. It was a silent whisper to my heart, not small or straw, but steady and strong, my Father’s voice.

And he said this: “Remain in me, I will remain in you.”

Eight simple words that hung in the air. Eight simple words that dropped heavy into my heart. Eight simple words that were exactly what I needed to hear.

“Remain in me, I will remain in you.”

Eight simple words that revealed the key to life while I was contemplating death.

In the book, Celebration of Discipline, Richard Foster wrote, “All who have walked with God have viewed prayer as the main business of their lives.”

In the movie, Shawshank Redemption, Andy said, “Get busy living or get busy dying.”

In the Bible, Jesus said, “Remain in me, and I will remain in you.” (John 15:4)

This, my friends, is the key to life.

If you can fasten yourself to this truth, build your life and your affections around it, then it will not matter what misfortunes happen to you. You may have nothing, you may lose everything this world says matters, but if you have Christ, you will have everything.

And that everything will get you through anything.

My friends, remain in Christ and he will remain in you. Make prayer the main business of your lives. Get busy living.

I’m so glad you’ve come along on this coaching journey. Next, we’ll consider how you want your prayer life to be.

By the way, there was no brain tumor, but if there was, I would have still had everything because I had Christ.