WHO IS GOD TO US?

Empathy is defined as “your pain in my heart”.  How do we develop empathy if we never experience pain or hurt, sickness or the loss of a loved one, either through death or the ending of a relationship?

Oswald Chambers writes “Suffering either gives me to myself or it destroys me.  The only way to find yourself is in the fires of sorrow.  Why it should be this way is immaterial.  The fact is that it is true in the Scriptures and in human experience.  You can always know that you can go to him, who has suffered, in your moment of trouble and find that he has plenty of time for you.  But if a person has not been through the fires of sorrow, he is apt to be contemptuous, having no respect or time for you, only turning you away.  If you receive yourself in the fires of sorrow God will make you nourishment for other people".

My sister once wrote me a letter and this is what she said "I think we are blessed in a wonderfully paradoxical way, because our capacity - huge capacity - for healing has been carved and hollowed out through out experiences of pain and feelings of rejection, feelings of never quite being good enough, through our failures, through our unmet expectations, and disappointments with ourselves and others - suffering is so intimately connected to wholeness.  Perhaps wisdom is simply a matter of waiting and healing a question of time"

It has been through my times of pain and sorrow that I have grown the most as a person.

It is also during those times that I have actively sought God and prayed the most!

Nick Vujicic, a man born without arms or legs has this to say:  “I love how God lets us go through difficult challenges to help each other and encourage one another.  The challenges in our lives are there to strengthen our convictions.  They are not there to run us over”.

A man who I never met, put into words what God ‘is’ and those words have had a major impact on my life and my relationship with God.  His name was Andre le Roux and he was a Methodist minister.  He wrote a letter on the 26/05/2010 after being given the news that despite the chemotherapy treatment he had been undergoing, the cancer in his body was continuing to grow and spread.  Below is a portion of that letter:

"Now, more than ever, we are left with a miracle as the only option for healing.  We hold onto that hope, though will need to find, and own, a new hope too - one that is not dependent on the cancer being taken away, but on being carried through this disease, and if necessary through the valley of the shadow of death.  It is not about what God can do for us, but about who God is to us.  And the God I believe in is not the magic genie god who jumps out of our "prayer lamps" to grant us our 3 wishes (though at times God does that for us).  I believe in a God who is with us in all things: carrying, guiding and challenging.  However, at this time, that picture needs strengthening and deepening in me - it needs a new depth that I have not needed before.  I am determined to find it.  God cannot be the "fix it" only God - that would make a mockery of everything that Jesus stood for. In the end, the incarnation is about God being with us.  I hope to find that in a way that sustains me along this road.  Never having been there before makes it a new journey for me - one that may prove lonely at times, no doubt frustrating and confusing at others, but there will also be the special moments that come from seeing the world through new eyes opened by the discoveries I make along the way." 

Andre died on 13/07/2010, 48 days after penning this letter.

Jesus died upon a cross in order to be able to “feel our pain in His heart”.

 

 

 

 

 

A GOD ORDAINED APPOINTMENT!

 

There is no such thing as a co-incidence in a believer’s life.  In Psalm 139:16 it says “All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be”.

God knows that sometimes we need to meet certain people and He arranges what I call “God ordained appointments”.  On a recent holiday to Port Alfred my youngest daughter and I had one such meeting.  We were travelling to meet my sister who was also staying in Port Alfred and as we left our holiday home the car started to make a noise.  It sounded like a stick or stone had got trapped between the wheel and the underside of the vehicle.  I stopped and checked underneath the car but could see nothing.

As we continued to drive the noise became worse. It was a screeching sound that got louder and louder until eventually we could hardly hear each other. I stopped the car again, got out, walked around it and prayed.  I phoned my sister to tell her we were going to be late.  I knew there was a garage workshop about a kilometer away and thought I would try and drive there slowly.

I got back into the car, started it and there wasn’t a sound. We drove off slowly and the silence was such a relief after the noise.  I decided to call on at the garage anyway as we had a ten hour drive back to Cape Town the day after.  We  arrived at the garage only to discover that it was closed. Standing in front of the locked gates was an elderly gentleman who looked like he had been waiting for us.  He walked towards us and told us that the workshop didn't open on Saturdays.  I asked him if he knew of any other garages and he said “yes, follow me”.  He got into a car parked nearby and drove off.  I followed him and we eventually drove into the parking lot of a business area and standing outside an open workshop roller door was a gentleman who later introduced himself as Chris Nell the owner of “Spannerworx”, Automative Maintenance.  My elderly gentleman spoke to Chris through the window of his car, told him my car needed looking at and drove off before I could thank him.  I said to Chris “that was a really nice guy”.  His reply “I have never seen him before”.  I knew that he had been an angel, just waiting for me to arrive so he could show me the way to Chris!  “For He will command His angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways” (Psalm 91:11).

Chris then informed me that his workshop was also closed on Saturdays and that he had just popped in to collect something and was on his way out.  I explained what had happened and told him that after praying for the car the noise had disappeared but I thought it would be best to have it checked.  He looked at me strangely then told me to drive the car into the workshop.  He hoisted it up and gave the wheels and underbody a thorough check and then took it for a test drive.  There was nothing wrong with it.

When he got back he refused any payment so we gave him one of the pancakes we had bought to take to my sister! He then shared with us his amazing testimony.  He had gone to a Mighty Men of God conference led by Angus Buchan (if you want to know more about this amazing man click on http://www.shalomtrust.co.za/) and his life had taken on a new meaning.  He showed us a photograph he had taken at the conference of a cloud in the shape of a cross that stayed still above the place where they were worshipping even though the clouds around it were constantly moving and changing shape as the wind blew. He shared with us how he had lost his job and had started his own business doing automotive maintenance from a small garage.  The business grew and within 2 years he was able to move to bigger premises.

 

OLD PREMISES

NEW PREMISES

How he was celebrating over 20 years of marriage that same day (cannot remember the exact number of years) and how thankful he was to God for his wife and his 2 sons.  He shared that he was relatively new at this relationship business with God but he had a burning desire to tell people about “His Father” and shared with us what God had been doing in his life.

I was going through one of those times when God seemed distant and God knew that I needed to hear a stranger’s testimony.  A stranger telling me about how great our God was and how much He cares for each of us individually and how intimately He is involved in our lives.

I needed the reminder that He has provided His angels to guide us and guard us (my elderly gentleman who led me to Chris) and that He loves us.

Four days later my mom died.  On the day she died I had the privilege to sit beside her for many hours before she went to be with our Lord and during that time I thought back to my meeting with Chris and how, through his witness, my faith and my hope in my God was renewed and strengthened.

Hebrews 3:13 “..encourage one another daily”.

Thank you Chris, for your encouragement and for checking my car out!