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He Gave His Only Son

"Have you come to believe because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed."

John 21:29

• There should be less talk. A preaching point is not a meeting point.


• The dying, the cripple, the mental, the unwanted, the unloved-- they are Jesus in disguise.


• In the West there is loneliness, which I call the leprosy of the West. In many ways it is worse than our poor in Calcutta. (Commonweal, Dec 19, 1997)


• It is not how much we do, but how much love we put in the doing. It is not how much we give, but how much love we put in the giving.


• The poor give us much more than we give them. They're such strong people, living day to day with no food. and they never curse, never complain. We don't have to give them pity or sympathy. We have so much to learn from them.


• I see God in every human being. When I wash the leper's wounds, I feel I am nursing the Lord himself. Is it not a beautiful experience?


• I do not pray for success. I ask for faithfulness.


• Let us not be satisfied with just giving money. Money is not enough, money can be got, but they need your hearts to love them. So, spread your love everywhere you go.


• If you judge people, you have no time to love them.

~Mother Teresa~

“See the perfection in it.” I have a friend that keeps telling me that, every time things take a turn for the worse in my life and to tell you the truth, I just didn’t get it at first.

When I made my return back to church and began my journey to grow in Gods love and to come to know Christ more, I probably began the journey with the wrong thinking. I suppose I thought that if I started doing the right thing, coming back to God, that life would, well, get easier. But to be honest with you at times it seems the total opposite.

The past 4 plus years have been some pretty painful ones beginning with our two year struggle to gain custody of our grandson. A battle that we lost, after the State of Oregon decided to ship him off to an aunt in Florida one he’d never even met before, and they didn’t even let us say goodbye, as a matter of fact they never even told us they had done this, it was only by accident that I discovered this heartbreaking news. So where could there possibly be perfection in having your heart torn out in such a manner? But I see now that I found the perfection in it, instead of allowing this emotional tragedy control my life, instead of me turning away from God in my anger, I dropped to my knees and prayed to God to give me the strength and the faith to blindly accept the loss of my grandson as His will and part of His plan for me. Instead of losing faith in God I found that the situation became the building block of my faith. Shortly after this, my oldest son was accused of a crime that he did not commit but financial backing for a good lawyer was not available, and even though one of the people accusing him of this crime backed out and said it was all a lie, the DA still decided to press on with the other alleged victim in tow and when my son was at a near breaking point, and probably knowing that they couldn’t make a case with the original charges, pressured my son into a plea bargain. Against my better judgment I suppose and his lack of confidence in the public defender he did as they say, “copped a plea” forcing him to accept a crime he did not commit and be on probation with the threat of prison looming over his head should he mess up. See the perfection in that? Hard, I know, but it did bring my son home where I was able to bring him into the church where he began his journey in knowing Christ and what Christ has to offer us all. So there in itself was the perfection in the situation.

None of us can possibly know the burdens one might have being under a constrictive and restrictive probation, nor can any of us say how we would react to it, needless to say, it was tough for my son and perhaps he didn’t see the seriousness in abiding by all these restrictions because of the fact it was hard to accept any of it being innocent. It was hard for my son and problem after problem kept arising with employment, medical issues and eventually drinking became a major problem, more than likely to cloud all the mental and physical pain he was enduring. Needless to say on more than one occasion they found out that he was drinking and that was enough for them to revoke his probation. Having to face the same judge as he originally did was not in his favor and another painful issue struck this family. The judge not only would not reconsider probation but also demanded he serve his original sentence of 3 years in a minimum security prison. Leaving us with absolutely no faith in a system that generally only works for those who can afford for it to work. Where can you find the perfection in all of this? How is it possible to see the perfection in losing your son for up to 3 years to prison society? I struggled with this one and trying to find the perfection. Until I read a few letters from my son.

He found the perfection in it, he fully gave himself to God and accepted what he now has to face. He refuses to fight the situation and has found that he has far more time to be with Christ now and understands that this is part of God’s plan for him. He knows that God has something to teach him during this trial in his life and not only that, he’s spreading the Word of God to an audience that needs to hear about God’s mercy, kindness, grace and love. He’s learning to lead faith discussions and heads a Bible Study for inmates that want to learn more about what Christ has to offer and he began all of this within in less than a month, he knew that this was what God was asking him to do. My son sees the perfection in all of this and has taught me how to see it as well.

To compound all of this, just after learning to cope with my son’s situation I found myself laid off from my job within the first week of the New Year. Perhaps that would not seem so bad had it not been for the fact my husband too was unemployed. And perhaps losing a job after all else seems somewhat minor but it was something that seemed to test my faith far more than all the rest. It was the question of “Why does all of this keep happening? One thing after another. I pray, and pray, and do all that you keep asking of me Lord, so why?!” I simply couldn’t find the perfection in this and so I prayed, I prayed for my faith to strengthen. The day after my question of faith I felt as if I simply could not move, did not want to move after getting up and decided to lie down on the couch and before I knew it, I had passed out, almost as if someone had literally knocked me out. I awoke several hours later after being what seemed like unconscious….and the first thing that I saw was the wooden cross hanging over my fireplace and I heard a voice whisper to me “I love you.” And I was the only one in the room. At that moment I knew who had spoken those words and immediately the weight of this burden was completely lifted and I felt totally rejuvenated. I suddenly realized the perfection in this….I was given the opportunity to literally rest in “The Spirit” and regain strength in my faith.

The very next day, something that rarely happens today in our society….my husband was hired for a job right on the spot.

On just his third day on the job he was given his own route and now would be using his own vehicle to do his work but God had other plans. The truck broke down in the middle of his route and needed repair or no job. We were able to get the truck fixed by the evening so all was well and he would be able to return to work the next day. But once again God had other plans. Once again the truck broke down at the same location as the day before. So once again we are required to spend money that we simply did not have in hope that we can fix the situation and save his new job. At this point in time, we both figured his job was pretty much gone but to our amazement, they did not decided to let him go. I suddenly realized that God was trying to tell my husband that although perhaps the job did not offer him the pay he desired, that the most important thing to see here is that he had found employers who cared and understood. Seeing the perfection in it all is suddenly so clear now.

But the perfection in all of this does not end here. Through all of this that I’ve spoken of, not only has God been with me, he’s also shown me there are many who care and love me and my family. I won’t mention names but last night I received a voucher from a wonderful group of people, to turn in for cash to help in our time of need and today in the mail, I received yet even more aid. Seeing the perfection in all of this has opened my eyes wide to just how blessed I am to have Christ in my life and so many wonderful and caring friends.

If you can’t find the perfection in your own life situations think about this for a moment.

Christ died for us on the cross, so that we might be saved and join him and the Father for eternity. How perfect is that? Christ saw the perfection in his own death and if we can learn to see that perfection, then it will be far easier for us to see the perfection in all situations.

URLVD

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