So, I want to share this. Bear with me. This may be long.
Today, I came out of a store with my 2 youngest sons & walked to my van. There was a lady parked right beside me with her car hood up. She was smoking a cigarette & talking on a cell phone. She obviously needed help & I knew I had jumper cables in my van. I didn't want to interrupt if she was talking, but she just seemed to be trying to reach someone on her phone and she made eye contact with me .
I asked if she needed help and if she thought that her car just needed a jump. I told her I had cables & I'd be happy to help. She thanked me profusely. We jumped her car and were able to get it started.
She then told me this was the third time the car has left her sit and I was the first person who had offered to help her. She said the first time she was in the Walmart parking lot. She was there for an hour with her hood up, obviously having trouble, waiting for her sister to come help & not one person offered her a hand. She said the next time was at Arby's. She even went inside, asked a man if he might be able to help. She said he looked at her and said, 'I don't think so.'
"So, I really appreciate you helping". I told her 'Of course! I know I'd want someone to help me.' She said 'God Bless You.' We wished each other a Merry Christmas and went our separate ways.
When I got back in the van I remember looking at the time. It was 9:40 a.m.
I didn't get home from running errands until around 1:30 today. When I finally got the kids tucked in for naps & then sat down to check messages on the computer, I noticed the newsfeed on Facebook was filled with things about a shooting in CT. I didn't know what had happened! I went to an online news source & ,shaking in total disbelief, I read about 27 people dead...18 of them children. Horror, confusion, sadness washed over me. How? Why?
As I continued to read articles, see comments people were posting on Facebook, bits and pieces of what happened today came together. Among the details I read, was that the shootings had begun at 9:40 a.m. Nothing about this struck me right away. It was another piece of a horrific story.
It wasn't until later that it struck me that this had been the same time I had gotten back in my van. The same time that I had finished helping another person was the same time that someone else in another part of the country had begun ripping the lives of countless other people apart.
It wasn't until later that it struck me that this had been the same time I had gotten back in my van. The same time that I had finished helping another person was the same time that someone else in another part of the country had begun ripping the lives of countless other people apart.
And, as strange as it might sound, I felt like God was telling me something. We sometimes feel like we have little or no impact in a world that is shattered, a world that is falling apart. What difference does a small kindness to a stranger make when we are surrounded by such destruction, such evil?
But, those small kindnesses....each smile, each word of encouragement, each small sacrifice of time is a wound in the side of our enemy. And, there is an enemy. I have friends who have no belief in God, who have no belief in anything apart from science or they world they can see, taste, & touch. It seems that unbelief is spreading almost contagiously in our society. For those who don't believe, they scoff at the idea of their being a Power of Ultimate Good and a power of evil. Fairy tales, myths, mere stories is how they would describe all of that.
Yet, even in my moments of doubt (and don't we all have them to some extent or another?), even in moments where Good, where God is hard to see, that evil one gives himself away. The Bible says that he prowls around like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. And Satan's been gorging himself, feasting on the souls of a dying world. He seeks to destroy all that is good, all that is peace.
Maybe those who don't believe, don't sense it. I don't know. But, when things like this happen the evil is palpable. You can almost smell the stench of it. This goes beyond human failing (although the humans who carry out these horrors made the choice and carry the guilt). But, there is something more. There is something so wretched and grotesque that wriggled & wormed it's way into someone's psyche, their heart, their soul.
I feel it when I watch certain movies or when I hear certain songs. I can feel it when I see families, relationships, peace ripped apart by anger & hurt. It is there. This thing that seeks the absolute annihilation of all of us.
BUT, here it is. The Bible also tells us that Greater is He that is in us than he that is in the world. We have the advantage! We are God's people. We have His Power in us! And, that terrifies the enemy. So, he seeks to blind us to the evil, or distract us with all the glitzy & time-consuming things this world has to offer, or he seeks to plant fear in our hearts...to fool us into believe we are powerless.
Here is the TRUTH. God is still the Great I Am, King of Kings, Lord of Lords. None can stand before him. He is Holy, Almighty, Worthy. All Power, all Honor, all Glory is his!
And, He sent His Son to bring us Salvation, to bring us Peace. He is the Prince of Peace!
Jesus Himself prayed 'Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven .' Don't miss that part. God's will can AND WILL be done on earth! He has already won.
And, we are the messengers, the carriers of that truth. Each time we reach out to others, that we share our time, our resources, our kindness.... it is a chance for God to work in another's heart. It is a chance for God's will to be accomplished.
And, don't let the enemy fool you. God is at work. And, God prevails.
But, those small kindnesses....each smile, each word of encouragement, each small sacrifice of time is a wound in the side of our enemy. And, there is an enemy. I have friends who have no belief in God, who have no belief in anything apart from science or they world they can see, taste, & touch. It seems that unbelief is spreading almost contagiously in our society. For those who don't believe, they scoff at the idea of their being a Power of Ultimate Good and a power of evil. Fairy tales, myths, mere stories is how they would describe all of that.
Yet, even in my moments of doubt (and don't we all have them to some extent or another?), even in moments where Good, where God is hard to see, that evil one gives himself away. The Bible says that he prowls around like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. And Satan's been gorging himself, feasting on the souls of a dying world. He seeks to destroy all that is good, all that is peace.
Maybe those who don't believe, don't sense it. I don't know. But, when things like this happen the evil is palpable. You can almost smell the stench of it. This goes beyond human failing (although the humans who carry out these horrors made the choice and carry the guilt). But, there is something more. There is something so wretched and grotesque that wriggled & wormed it's way into someone's psyche, their heart, their soul.
I feel it when I watch certain movies or when I hear certain songs. I can feel it when I see families, relationships, peace ripped apart by anger & hurt. It is there. This thing that seeks the absolute annihilation of all of us.
BUT, here it is. The Bible also tells us that Greater is He that is in us than he that is in the world. We have the advantage! We are God's people. We have His Power in us! And, that terrifies the enemy. So, he seeks to blind us to the evil, or distract us with all the glitzy & time-consuming things this world has to offer, or he seeks to plant fear in our hearts...to fool us into believe we are powerless.
Here is the TRUTH. God is still the Great I Am, King of Kings, Lord of Lords. None can stand before him. He is Holy, Almighty, Worthy. All Power, all Honor, all Glory is his!
And, He sent His Son to bring us Salvation, to bring us Peace. He is the Prince of Peace!
Jesus Himself prayed 'Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven .' Don't miss that part. God's will can AND WILL be done on earth! He has already won.
And, we are the messengers, the carriers of that truth. Each time we reach out to others, that we share our time, our resources, our kindness.... it is a chance for God to work in another's heart. It is a chance for God's will to be accomplished.
And, don't let the enemy fool you. God is at work. And, God prevails.
"Remember the former things, those of long ago;
I am God, and there is no other;
I am God, and there is none like me.
10I make known the end from the beginning,
from ancient times, what is still to come.
I say: My purpose will stand,
and I will do all that I please."
Isaiah 46: 9 & 10
