My Story: After The Tragedy (Part 4)

I have mentioned several times here my faith.  It has been key in my life and recovery.  Going back to the story of Lazarus. It says “Jesus wept”.  I heard it talked about the other day that as Jesus healed and brought Lazarus back to life he wept first.  He wept because of the loss of a friend.  The speaker then said that part of his weeping might have also been because of the life in heaven that he was bringing him back from.  I believe as I read the bible more that Heaven will be unimaginable.  There are so many treats here that I cannot imagine what heaven will be like.  I believe that salvation is made available to anyone who places faith in Jesus.   I recommend that if you have not spent time looking into it then get involved with a local church and most importantly read the Roman Road salvation plan.  A few weeks ago our church handed out salvation bracelets after a sermon. Mine sat in its bag for a week until my daughter helped me get it how I liked it.  I am wearing it now.  Looking at the simple bracelet, which I do not know how many we made as kids at Vacation Bible School, I am reminded of what the Lord has done for me.  On the bracelet there are six beads of different colors.  The first is a black bead to represent sin, yes today I mess up and sin but my sin even as a kid was as the bead and black or a dark spot on my life as it was unforgiven.  The next bead is red, by the blood of Jesus my sin has been forgiven.  That is past, future and present sin.  The next bead is white, through Jesus’s blood I am forgiven and washed white.  As I said before I believe the sin in my life unforgiven had me black or dark on the inside but washed by the blood of Jesus I am now forgiven of those sins.  The next bead is blue for baptism.  When I was a kid I asked Jesus into my heart and for forgiveness of sin.  When I did this I was baptized to let everyone know of what Jesus had done for me.  The next bead is green for growth.  This is where I believe I am right now.  I am growing in my faith especially through this struggle.  The next bead is gold or yellow.  It represents the end goal which is heaven.  As I said before I believe heaven will be unimaginable.  As written in Romans  “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.” – Romans 6:23  My faith tells me that even though at this time I cannot see it, I believe better days are coming.  I believe that if those times do not come here they will come in heaven because of my faith I have placed in Jesus. When looking back at my past I could not see what was coming next and would have never been able to imagine the future so I know the same will happen next.

I do not see this story as only a faith story but of a life that a key part of has been faith.  Interwoven into my story is that of one where God, the creator of the universe, was always present.  Where Jesus, the Savior of the world, died for me to be a perfect sacrifice for my many sins.  And last but not least by my faith at 10 or 11 years old the Holy Spirit was at work during this entire story and has shown his handiwork during this story for sure.  I give all the glory to God for saving my life.  Yes, I get very frustrated at times but I know he is at work.  He healed me from a TRAGEDY as the doctor called it.

Our family recently took a family trip.  We went on a mission trip to Anaheim, California.  Our team worked at a vacation bible school for kids at a church plant there in Anaheim.  From Anaheim we then went to northern California on a family vacation.  As we left Little Rock to fly to Anaheim, going through security they had us take off our shoes.  After the security check I sat down to put my shoes back on.  One of my shoelaces broke when I went to tie the shoe.  These shoelaces were put in my shoes at rehabilitation.  The shoelaces were elastic.  The thought as I understand it was the shoes with elastic shoelaces could be put on without the trouble of tying them.  Once we got to Anaheim we stopped at a drug store and I bought a new pair of shoelaces.  When I replaced the shoelaces I could not help but feel a close to the chapter.  At a time when I sat in a wheelchair and watched one of my therapists put in the new elastic shoelaces.  This therapist was one of the Occupational Therapists and worked with me daily while I was an inpatient therapy patient.  When I was released from therapy this therapist brought me many tools to assist in life after therapy.  I think today I use one of those tools, it feels good to be able to do many things that I could not a year ago.  Seeing these removed and with a more standard shoelace felt good to move forward.  I know there is more change coming.

The mission trip to Anaheim was very good to me.  Looking back I realize how good this trip was to me.  It was so good to be able to serve at a moment such as this.  We had such a special team on this trip.  Many of them I had connections with that were strengthened during this trip but I also made some new connections with some amazing team members.  If you or your church do not do mission trips you can look up 516 Missions which is a mission trip organization that is based at our church and sends people all over the country and world on mission trips.  Through 516 the entire trip is planned for you and you’ll get to do it with an amazingly talented team.  Spending so much of my life in the church I do not know how many spiritual gift tests I have taken.  In each of these tests service has been the area or gift that has been overwhelmingly high on each test.  I couldn’t agree more with this assessment.  I love to serve and doing so further from the spotlight is even better.  Because of my speaking and physical difficulties I found that vacuuming after lunch was an area that I could serve on the trip.  Doing this allowed me to serve while the others on the team worked with the kids.  It was so good to be back at serving.

While at Anaheim on our first Sunday the pastor preached from Galatians 6:9-10.  I believe hearing this message was the main reason God took me to Anaheim.  Next was service and connecting with an awesome team but first was to hear this message.  In his message the pastor made these points as part of his sermon on Galatians 6:9-10.  Do Good, Due Season, Don’t Quit.  The areas of Due Season – something is coming and not giving up are the areas I struggle in.  As I said, doing good was something that I’ve missed in all this but with this trip it felt good to get back to at least attempting it.  Does it look different today?  Absolutely it does. Am I thankful to have the opportunity to serve?  Yes I am.

Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.  Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.  – Galatians 6:9-10

Other verses he used in his message:

And as for you, brothers and sisters, never tire of doing what is good.  – 2 Thessalonians 3:13

…being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.  – Philippians 1:6

Another point that he made in his message that really hit me was: If you don’t plant orange seeds you don’t harvest oranges.  We must attempt to get better.  What is your tragedy?  How have the tragedies of life slowed you down?  We may not be able to get past the struggles but we must attempt it.  RUN.

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