Hurting???

So, I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you, seek and you will find, knock, and it will be opened to you.  For everyone who asks, receives and he who seeks, finds, and to him who knocks, it will be opened" (Luke 11:9-10). 

Hey Gang:  But what about those times that I prayed, and prayed and then prayed again for something and it resulted in more questions than answers?  How about those times when the prayer lines were opened across the land and the results were a crushing blow to my faith? 

I am reading a wonderful book by Martha Bolton who has gained much fame in recent years writing books about the Plain People (Amish).  This one is a book you want to read when the government is going through a series of fiasco's, as it is today.  She has written many things that I would like to share with you this morning but I will restrict it to one.  That does not mean that I won't use others tomorrow.

The story centers on a congressman who was running for president and had just withdrawn due to dropping pole numbers and the rejection of his party to support him.  As he was leaving Washington for his home in Wisconsin he ran into road construction and decided to take a less traveled route. This took him through one of my old stomping grounds, Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

To make a long story short, he took his eyes off the road and ended up in a ditch, One might say this was a life-changing experience.  You see, he was in the midst of Amish country, on a back road infrequently traveled by motor vehicles..

Finally, he noticed something coming up the road - which turned out to be an Amish buggy with an Amish driver.  Again, let me skip to the punch line of this story.  A friendship developed between the Amish man and the politician, a relationship that changed the heart of the politician.  And in the course of conversation and his stay at the Amish home for a couple days, they talked about their lives and about their families.  The Amish man proudly introduced his children and carefully described each.   The last was his teen aged son, who had been killed in an accident, just months before.

The politician asked the Amish man a question that I have asked man times in the past several months.  You all know lost a grandson, whom I dearly loved as I love all of my grandchildren and great grandchildren, to a two year battle with cancer.  It was not a totally new experience, for I also lost a son 27 years ago in auto accident.  

   

The question: how in the world did you get through a loss like that?  And his answer was so simple and so basic,  "By believing in the things I believed in before it".  Wow!!!.  As I sat there thinking about that I felt the need to seek the Lord's forgiveness for trying to put the blame of deaths of David and Ryan on the shoulders of the Lord.  It reminded me of the story of John Huss, who was given a chance to recant his faith in Christ prior to those lighting the fire that would take his life - His response, “How can I turn my back on my Lord when He has cared for me all these years.

Soooo. my friends, when the alligators rise and start nipping at your heels, and you find your backside against the wall, remember the words of the Amish man who said, "By believing in the things I believed in before it happened!”   Paul put it a little differently when he wrote these words for our edification,   "And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose" (Rom. 8:28).  

Blessings,

Gramps