It can be easy to think of Pastor John as DR. JOHN PIPER. But his heart is tuned primarily to being the pastor of a local church with real people who have real needs.
On July 4, 1995, our son arrived and we knew he would be blind as he had no eyes. On July 5, Pastor Tom Steller, now the Dean of Bethlehem College & Seminary, walked up my front sidewalk with a letter from Pastor John, which I’ve included below. It would also be published in the Bethlehem Star, the weekly church newsletter that was sent to members and regular attenders.
Sadly, in our pain and bitterness and hopelessness and sin-filled pride, we would walk away from Bethlehem just a couple of months later, rejecting both God and the people of God. But, thanks be to God, that would not be the end of the story! And this letter from Pastor John would be one of those building blocks that God used to call us to himself.
Tomorrow, one of the results of Pastor John’s calling on the church to do hard things.
Words of Hope for a Baby Born Blind
Dear John and Diane,
Last night, as I prayed with Noel, you were heavy on my mind. I said, “Lord, O Lord, please let me be a pastor who preaches and leads and loves in a way that makes the impossibilities of life possible for your people by a miracle of sustaining grace. Help me to know the weight and pain of this life and not to be breezy when the mountains have fallen into the sea. Help me to have the aroma of Christ’s sufferings about me. Prevent shallowness and callousness to pain. O Lord make me and my people a burden bearing people.”
O John and Diane, I am so heavy with your child’s sightlessness! God is visiting Bethlehem with such pain these days in the birth of broken children. Randy and Ann Erickson with their baby’s broken heart; Jan and Rob Barrett with their baby’s liver outside the body; and your precious little one! Is the Lord saying, “I have a gift for your community.” This is not one or two or three couples’ burden. This is a gift and call to the whole church. This is a word concerning the brokenness of this fallen age of futility. This is an invitation for you all to believe that “here we have no lasting city” (Hebrews 13:14). This is an invitation for you to “count every gain as loss for the sake of Christ” (Philippians 3:7). This is a shocking test to see if you will “lose heart” when in fact God’s purpose is to show that his grace is sufficient to renew our inner person every day to deal with the “slight momentary affliction which is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, because we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen; for the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal” (2 Corinthians 4:17-18).
O Lord, open our eyes to your love in this pain. Open our eyes. “Then Elisha prayed, and said, ‘O Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes that he may see.’ So the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw; and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha” (2 Kings 6:17). John and Diane, the mountains surrounding your lives are filled with the horses and chariots of God. Only to the eyes of unbelief does the devil have the upperhand here. God is at work in ways and for years and generations and millions of people that we cannot now imagine. This is ours to believe and to bear, no matter the cost. This is ours for this short life.
It seems to me that this life is a proving ground for the kingdom to come. Some are asked to devote forty or fifty years to caring for a handicapped child instead of breezing through life without pain. Others are asked to be blind all their lives…
But only in this life – ONLY in this life. I want to be the kind person who makes that “ONLY” what it really is – very short. Prelude to the infinity of joy, joy, joy. But not yet. Not entirely.
How will we ever cope with the burdens of this life if we believe this is all there is, or even the main act in this drama of reality? O Lord, give us your view of things.
May God fill you with anticipated joy.
“I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.”
I love you,
Pastor John
The Works of God 
God’s redeeming love truly is too amazing! Thank you for the encouragement. Pastor John and his church is a great inspiration to me.
Dear John:
Thanks for sharing this letter. It both helps me as I reflect upon the birth of my daughter, and it serves as a model as I shepherd the people God has entrusted to my care while we live in the “not yet.”
Sincerely in Christ,
Steve
[…] 24, 2009 in Misc. | Tags: Blind, Disabilities, Disability Ministry, Pastor, Pastoral Care CLICK HERE. Twitter […]
we have to go through MUCH to come to the place we can say that the things of this world are nothing and Christ is everything. Counting it ALL joy is “Christian Hedonism” and “Christian Contentment”… reminded of quote from Jeremiah Burroughs…”Christian contentment is that sweet, inward, quiet, gracious frame of spirit, which freely submits to and delights in God’s wise and fatherly disposal in every condition.”
Thanks for for sharing this. Its an encouragement too to hear of you overcoming such pain to praise God in the end. Thanks. . .
Thank you for this reminder. My wife and I have struggled over the past year as our only child fought an inoperable brain tumor, then went home to be with our Lord in February. In between the sorrow of hearing three times that our time with Ian would be short, we had the joy of watching the Holy Spirit manifest Himself in our little boy. His small testimony has reverberated among friends and family, causing many to be drawn closer to Jesus.
I plan on re-reading this letter as an encouragement, as the enemy tries to distort my viewpoint. I have been struggling over the past few days to maintain an eternal perspective. You have helped me.
Tom
http://caringbridge.org/visit/ianhenderson
Pastor John’s letter said..”God is at work in ways and for years and generations and millions of people that we cannot now imagine. This is ours to believe and to bear, no matter the cost. This is ours for this short life.”
God used this event to touch and change my life years later in Southern California. Thank you for walking through it.
God gets all the Glory.
This is absolutely wonderful. Well done dear brother!!
What a wonderful testimony – thank you so much for sharing!
This reminds me of our call to walk by faith, not by sight; and to be looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of faith — something we must do from the heart, with the eyes of faith, whether or not we are (or remain) physically sighted. I also recall this sweet poem:
O what a happy soul I am!
Although I cannot see.
I am resolved that in this world
Contented I will be.
How many blessings I enjoy
That other people don’t.
To weep and sigh because I’m blind,
I cannot, and I won’t.
– Fanny Crosby, age eight
Our little boy was born without a portion of his brain. He will forever be about 17 years old even though he is actually 21. I’ve come to realize that god sent me a blessing like no other. My young man has brought me joy in light of the pain and i wouldnt have it any other way. God’s plan is perfect for our lives where as our plan is imperfect. Rejoice and be glad in all the things God puts into our lives!
I continually go to James 1: 12, Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.
Believe it, when God says in James, to count it all joy when you meet trials of various kinds.
One day i will see my boy with my Christ lord and he will be whole. until then God has a plan for my life and his and i will trust him and wait patiently on him!
What about the blind man Jesus healed? He wasn’t blind because of something he or his parents had done wrong, but rather so that God’s power could heal him.
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What an enormous difference it would make if there were more pastors who had the spiritual understanding, wisdom and love to write such a letter or say such words to the suffering people of their congregation.
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I am totally blind and have seen the grace of God in so many ways over the years! I have a supportive family, terrific friends, great adaptive aids and, best of all, I have Christ! In my blindness, He has blessed me with perfect spiritual sight! The words of the hymn, “Amazing Grace” hold true for me:
“Was blind but now I see”
Praise be to God– the one who makes the broken whole and who heals the afflicted!
As the mother of a 16 year old son who has Down syndrome, I am particularly moved and humbled by Pastor John’s love-filled and honest letter to this precious family and the family’s return to the great High King Jesus. Every one of us is given opportunities to face our fears and lack of faith but to some those opportunities are very public. It is always the grace of God that blesses us with the ability to humble ourselves before Him and go through the trial “as unto the Lord.” Through the birth of our very precious boy, which was a painful trial to me, I have learned that much in life is a blessing in disguise. As I learn to trust the Lord, my perspective is eternally altered. What joy to realize how short this season called life is, and to believe in and yearn for the eternal yet to come.
[…] I posted a letter that Pastor John sent to Dianne and me just after Paul was born, where he sent a specific word of hope to us and […]
Thanks, John, for sharing this personal letter. And thanks, Pastor Piper, for so elequently putting into words a concept that is difficult to explain.
Sue Hume
[…] Helpful Things: Pastors Who Love Their People It can be easy to think of Pastor John as DR. JOHN PIPER. But his heart is tuned primarily to being the pastor of a […] […]
[…] the volunteer disability ministry blog for Bethlehem Baptist Church, https://theworksofgod.com/2009/09/24/helpful-things-pastors-who-love-their-people/ Broken Believers Note- I have included this story because it carries the aroma of the suffering […]
[…] message can be found at: https://theworksofgod.com/2009/09/24/helpful-things-pastors-who-love-their-people/ Broken Believers Note: Although this message has little to do with mental illness, I felt […]
[…] years ago, John Piper did this when he wrote a letter to John Knight, who is now Desiring God’s Sr. Director of Development. The letter was “Words of […]
[…] A pastor who loves his people […]
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Ah! Words that comfort my soul also.
I do believe that the life we are living with our son is blessed and that only God could create such a blessing out of pain.
Thanks for posting these words or encouragement.
Anne
onegirlfriday.blogspot.com
[…] Helpful Things: Pastors Who Love Their People […]
[…] was the first of Bethlehem’s pastors to walk up my front step the day after our Paul was born, with a note from Pastor John. These men know what it means to walk into the fire that is human suffering, trusting in God to […]
[…] 15 years ago, Pastor John included this in a letter to us many of you have already read: It seems to me that this life is a proving ground for the kingdom to come. Some are asked to […]
[…] Helpful Things: Pastors Who Love Their People – A blog post by John including a letter Pastor John wrote to him and Dianne entitled “Words of Hope for a Baby Born Blind.” […]
[…] Helpful Things: Pastors Who Love Their People And here’s number six, just because it was so goofy and wonderful: Elephants Exist to Bring Glory to God! […]
That’s really thkniing out of the box. Thanks!
[…] Helpful Things: Pastors Who Love Their People […]
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