As I was saying, I thank God that I later attended a church where the pastor told a very different tale than the uptight, holier-than-thou pastor had told.
My new pastor, at a different church in a different town, told us about when he was a small boy. His father, when leaving early in the morning for work one day, opened up their natural gas powered stove and turned it on. Then, while his wife and five children were still sound asleep in the quiet peace of the early dawn, he threw a match in the door as he left.
As you can imagine, that house was immediately engulfed in flames. It was a miracle that any one of them lived.
While this pastor, then just a small boy, lay in a hospital bed on the brink of death, his mother prayed. “Lord, if you spare my son, he is all yours. I will raise him for you and you only all the days of his life.”
The Lord answered that desperate mother’s plea. As a result, our pastor stood before us that day with joy evident on his face as he worshipped unashamed of the tears running down his cheeks.
He said, “If I can endure the physical pain of 2nd and 3rd degree burns all over my body, lungs seared from breathing in that heat, and worst of all, the emotional pain of knowing my own father wanted me dead, and I can still stand here and praise the Lord, then, no matter what you’ve been through, you can praise Him too.”
He was right. I looked at him, and thought, “If there was hope for him, there is hope for me.” I felt his pain, and I understood it. What is more, I wanted the joy and love he radiated in spite of it all.
My heartfelt desire is that by sharing with you how Jesus has shown Himself real to me, in spite of it all, you will realize there is hope for you. I so much want to show you how to find in Him everything you need.
If you have ever suffered a deep and painful loss, this blog series is for you. If you have ever faced a challenge so big you thought you would never see the other side, or if you have ever felt like giving up on God because you felt like he’d given up on you, this blog will be a shelter from the storm.
You have not stumbled upon this blog by accident. No more than a drowning person just happens to find a life-preserver nearby in the tempest-tossed waves. It is designed to keep you afloat, to give you a second chance at life and at faith. It is written to bring you fresh hope and a new direction.
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