A young lady, a very quiet young woman with a small child has been coming to church lately. She gave a testimony today that really took me by surprise. It was a testimony about how she came to know that God loves her. She had originally considered Him as a rule enforcer, lacking love. But she came to know Him as the One who loves her. He was with her in an ambulance ride when she died from complications of an asthma attack. He saved her.
But her testimony was not about that as much as it was about the fact that she is alright with the parts of her life that he hasn’t touched. She still has asthma. She still works hard and lives from paycheck to paycheck with her little son. She implored all of us to continue to let others know what He has done and what He is capable of doing. Perhaps he hasn’t done everything that we want, but He has done much more than we could have ever asked for. She encouraged us to live a life going forward as people who not only never give up, but as encouragers to others for the very same thing.
I felt convicted of my easy-believism. Thank God that He isn’t impatient with me. I have used some bad excuses for not coming through for Him. I have had many “important reasons” why I have postponed decisions to lay down something for Him. He has not given up on me even when I have taken an offense and threatened to give up on Him. The message, if it came from a Super Bowl Champion would mean very little to me. But the fact that an impassioned exhortation to never give up came from a small little lady who is believing that someday she will not have to have her inhaler, well, that impacted me. If she can encourage us to stand strong, then I can stand strong. If she can encourage us to continue to keep going and to praise Him every step of the way, then I can do that.
2 comments:
I wish I had heard her testimony. Words like that can humble and inspire the hardest of people. I have one question. And I'm not trying to be a smart a. But it touches on the usual themes through your blog.
Can she afford her inhalers? Is she getting any assistance with that ambulance ride?
It is wonderful that she is seeing blessings from God before she even put her trust in Him.
But has she put her hard earned $ trust into a health plan. And is she going to be financially alright?
This is exactly where I'm coming from. Between you and I and Anonymous Sister and Eric Cantor and Joe Wison and Max Baucus and Obama, we can do a lot of shouting and finger pointing; but its people like this quiet woman who suffer from inaction or wrong action.
As a church, I encourage you and the the other members to really get your arms around her and here her stories. Not just the ones that inspire, but the troubling ones as well.
"What does the Lord require of you? To seek justice. And love kindness. And walk humbly with your God." --kb
Great testimony, thanks for sharing it!
Post a Comment