In Hard Times God Was With Them–Do You Think He’s Forgotten You?
Sunday in the a.m and p.m. services, Prestoncrest Church of Christ’s Gordon Dabbs drew two amazing word pictures that have helped continue to reshape my focus and attitude the past few days, and I feel compelled to share them here. You know I don’t do this about religion very often, but I’m drawn now to do so.
Growing Into The Enormity Of God’s Love
When we put on Christianity, most of us don’t really have an idea of its breadth. I’d say it’s almost impossible to do so until we spend a lot of time in study, prayer, reflection and personal growth.
During his morning sermon, Gordon painted this word very special word picture: Imagine I’m a billionaire and I go and buy the most expensive private jet aircraft in the world for my 13-year-old son and give it to him and say, “It’s yours. All paid for. The only stipulation is that you are the only one who can pilot the aircraft.” At 13, his son does not have a pilot’s license. To make the most of his father’s gift, the son will have to go through growth, maturity and pilot school in order to ever make full use of the gift.
Doesn’t the same situation exist in our walk with Jesus? Do you think new born Christians are ready to “fly the plane?”
It’s why on our walks, we need to do as I think it was Paul said, and drink small sips of milk in order to grow, to study regularly and to find ways to mature in our faith. That’s why it’s a walk, not a sprint.
God Was With Them
The other great thing Gordon was talking about Sunday evening was that through their trails and tribulations, which both involved jail time, the Bible says that “God was with” Joseph, whose brothers sold him into slavery, and with Paul, who was falsely imprisoned.
The inference is that even in times of great despair and loss for two of God’s favorite biblical characters, he was there with them, at their side, ensuring that they’d be around for to meet his purpose for them.
Finding Life’s Purpose
On the way back from Denver in October I sat on a Southwest flight to Tulsa to Dallas next to a man who claimed to be a professional provoker. Our conversations soon turned to what he does–helping people find their purpose in life.
In an hour, he and I are going to have a Skype call about how to expand the reach of what he does. In preparing for that call, I’ve had to search for many new technologies and gone through his learning materials, which have led me to find my purpose in life. On ClaxtonCreative.com now you will find the new tagline, “Telling Stories With Purpose.” I firmly believe now that my purpose for being on this Earth is to find the best stories ever, and maybe not yet ever told, and share them with as many people as I may.
So at 48, I don’t know if I’m ready to take the plane up in the air, but I’m at least ready to taxi out to the runway. As noted many times, the past four years have been the hardest of my life. There have been times when I felt like I’d been left alone in a personal prison of great depth and despair with little where to go but back up again. In those times, I did wonder if God was with me. But as life has begun to unfold, as I have now found my purpose, it’s clearer by the minute that he indeed was right there all along. It also has become clear that I had to weather those horrific storms of life in order to be where I am now. At a point of discovery.
So what’s the take away here? Our faith’s progression is a journey and our minds need nourishment to feed them so they can grow in our understanding of what God intends us to do while we’re here. And no matter how dark things may appear in life, he’s always there. You just have to reach out to him to connect. And in dark days when it seems like you’re miles down in a dark, dark cave that’s pretty hard to comprehend. But I encourage you nonetheless. Reach out your hand. God will be there to take it.
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