Friends,

Our dear friend Matt Chandler is in a fight. For those of you who don’t know, here is the link to The Village Church website to get the latest updates.

Matt is a friend and the teacher of our brand new series on Philippians. The title of his series is the epic verse in Philippians, To Live is Christ and to Die is Gain.  Clearly a description for the journey Matt is on right now and of course it is the description for everyone of our lives.  The one major difference for Matt at this time in his life, is that he is clearly aware of his mortality and as he has said in his own words, “God is sovereign.”   For many of us…we still live in the land of ‘life is pretty good and may last forever.’

This is one of the most amazing journey’s I can only imagine and it is evident that God’s truth, love and grace are absolutely sustaining Matt and his family. When you watch this video of him just a day or so before brain surgery and you read his blog post, it is clear that as Matt’s body is weak, Christ is (of course) being made so real and strong.  God is giving Matt tremendous courage and He is being made STRONG in Matt.

I am grateful that in Matt’s blog and video there is clear evidence of real/honest/true emotions: tears, fear, questions – but  it is even more obvious the trust, belief, hope, confidence in Things Not Seen – but Things That Are Certain.

God, we wish it was not this way, that pain, awful struggle like Matt and his family are experiencing, are ways that we see your overwhelming love, power and peace, but it is clearly evident in Matt’s countenance and words.

God, we join with millions to pray. Please heal Matt. But we agree with Matt that your will be done and that through whatever struggle someone reading this might have, how great or how small, as we are found weak, we will trust you more because in those moments you are made strong.

Matt and Lauren, God is with you.