Osprey church of Christ

In the course of trying to find a congregation in Key Largo to worship with, Mark was given a lead to someone who lived near Sarasota, Florida, and worshiped at a congregation in Osprey, Florida. Mark called and got the information he needed, and as the conversation continued and our story unfolded of living on the road out of a van for a couple of years, Mark was given an invitation to fill in for their preacher, Nathaniel Outcalt, whom they’d recently hired, but was going to be in the Virgin Islands vacationing with his wife and three children. 

I grinned when we turned the corner and saw that the church building was on, of all streets, Pennsylvania Avenue and that the church house was indeed…white. I’d never worshiped at the white house on Pennsylvania Avenue, but looked forward to being able to say in jest that I had. 

You could tell the congregation was “tight” from the get-go, but what really stood out was the wonderful class participation, the quality of the comments that were being offered, and how many people came up after class and expressed their gratitude for Mark’s teaching. I was also taken aback by the quality of the sermon given by one of the other talented members who had settled in the area. It was on the topic of the significance of the etymology around the names of God, and how those meanings relate so beautifully to the story of the gospel. 

After worship, we received an above-average amount of invitations to settle in the area when we are done traveling, which was so sweet, and also sort of ironic given that none of them knew that the Sarasota area had been at the very top of my wish list of places in which to perhaps settle one day, if we must. We laughed with these new friends like we’d always known them and were invited to someday go out on the boat of a sixth-generation fisherman, who not only makes some killer fish dip out of the mullet he catches, he is so experienced on the sea that he’d been asked by the government to help tag bottlenose dolphins in a conservation effort. I’m all for that.   

We parted ways after lunch and two days later Mark’s cell phone rang. Their 47-year-old preacher had tragically drowned while snorkeling in the US Virgin Islands. His family and the congregation was, of course, absolutely reeling from the shocking and heartbreaking loss. Mark immediately offered to fill in, but they had already scheduled someone to preach even before the accident. As Providence would have it, it happened to be the same guest preacher, Nathan Ward, who had preached some 18 months previously on the heels of a previous loss.  Brethren online from near and far were just as heartbroken, and expressed their compassion in an outpouring of love by way of a fundraiser that made it’s goal in only one day and then soon went on to surpass it by $8K. So loved was this good man. His memorial was the Saturday following his death and the Sunday that followed, we again met with this hurting congregation. If there was ever a congregation acquainted with grief, it was this one, and because their faith rests in God alone, their resiliency is rock solid. It was an honor to be with this congregation during such a sacred moment of grief. Together we sang from the heart "Take My Hand, Precious Lord, Lead Me Home":

The sermon by Nathan Ward was the most moving that I’ve ever heard on the topic of suffering. It was not recorded, but if you google his name and the word “suffering”, you should be able to find about three similar ones on the topic that he preached at his own congregation on 58th Street in Temple Terrace, Florida, in the summer of 2018. 

Nathan shares in this sermon an analogy of a hunter who “comes across a bear caught in a trap and, out of sympathy, wants to free it. He tries to win the bear’s confidence—but wild and in pain, the bear will not trust him, so he shoots the bear with a tranquilizer—and the bear thinks this is an attack and that the hunter is trying to kill him. In order to get the bear out of the trap, the hunter has to push the trap further closed to release the tension on the spring; if the bear was even semi-conscious at this point, it would be convinced that the hunter is its enemy who was out to cause him suffering and pain. The bear is, of course, wrong—and it reaches this incorrect conclusion because it is not a human being. How can we be sure that this isn’t an analogy between us and God—that we can't understand the ways of God more than the bear could understand the actions of the hunter?” Nathan goes on to point out that from the life of Joseph, we learn that “...experiences with suffering, illness, death—are often our greatest personal, spiritual growth in life. With time and perspective, most of us can find good reasons for at least some of the tragedy and pain that we experience

Is it possible that, from God’s vantage point, there are good reasons for all? In the bear illustration—[we] must endure pain to be set free. Pain does do us good, and we would be lost without it. What would happen if we couldn’t feel when something was too hot to touch, and we leaned over a burner on high for fifteen minutes or so without realizing it?”  

Nathan then walked us through the various reasons why suffering exists, including our using our free will to choose sin which so often has unnumbered natural consequences (such as venereal disease, addiction, incarceration, etc. ). Sometimes we suffer as a punishment for sin (Acts 5), and sometimes we suffer because of one’s association with a sinful group (Joshua 7).  Suffering is often God’s way of getting our attention so we will choose to repent (Hebrews 12:5–11; Luke 13:1–5) or to keep us from sin (2 Corinthians 12:7–10; Hebrew 5:8). James 1:2–4 explains that we sometimes suffer so that our maturity will be “perfect and complete”. Very often the innocent suffer because of someone else's sin (Matthew 5:10), and as we see in the life of Joseph (Genesis 45:5) and Paul (2 Corinthians 11:23ff) sometimes we will suffer for the benefit of other sinners. 

Nathan concludes this beautiful presentation with the reality that the only sinless One who ever lived suffered, did so so that He could understand human suffering and thus become our compassionate High Priest. It is only by His suffering and death, that He could be the perfect sacrifice to remove our sins (Hebrews 2). 

I was amazed at God’s merciful timing of Nathan being scheduled to preach on the very Sunday this congregation would most need his healing words, and I believe God will often put those most hurting in our paths so that we, too, can be of comfort. 

It’s hard to watch those we love suffer, so I’d like to conclude this entry with a letter written by a foreign missionary to his father-in-law that speaks beautifully to the level of courage we may one day be called to have in surrendering our natural desire to overprotect those we love from suffering for the most worthy cause of all: the cause of Christ, and why such surrender is worth it.  “I have now to ask, whether you can consent to part with your daughter early next spring, to see her no more in the world; whether you can consent to her departure, and her subjection to the hardships and sufferings of missionary life; whether you can consent to her exposure to the dangers of the ocean, to the fatal influence of the southern climate of India; to every kind of want and distress; to degradation, insult, persecution, and perhaps a violent death. Can you consent to all this, for the sake of Him who left His heavenly home, and died for her and for you; for the sake of perishing, immortal souls; for the sake of Zion, and the glory of God? Can you consent to all this, in hope of soon meeting your daughter in the world of glory, with the crown of righteousness, brightened with the acclamations of praise which shall redound to her Savior from heathens saved, through her means, from eternal woe and despair?” Adoniram Judson. 

We’ve no idea what the future holds, but I pray for my readers that during times of suffering, God will grant a peace that passes understanding such as He granted Paul when in chains on the way to Jerusalem the Holy Spirit testified to him that in every city imprisonment and afflictions awaited him. It appears to me that the mindset to keep one’s head during these times is the almost miraculous ability God alone could grant, to “...not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God” (Acts 20:24).