Hey Gang: His name
was Sandy, he was twelve years old, violent, and his heart was filled with
hatred. He was locked away from society
because he had taken his hatred out on several children smaller than he, and
had vowed he would never change. A
question I have asked many times in my tenure of working with kids with broken
lives is “How Can That Happen Lord?”
And then I found out!
Sandy became a project for me in the six weeks he was under my
care. I wanted to find out how a twelve-year-old
child could be so filled with rage. In
my first conversations his responses were filled with curse words and venom
about everybody that had crossed his path in his short tenure on this earth. My prayer, in my time with Sandy, was a
simple, ”HELP Lord”. “Put your words in my mouth that will penetrate the shell
that keeps this young lad in bondage.
Sandy could tell me every time he had been beaten, every
time he had been locked in his room for days at a time, every time his dad had
come home drunk and beat he and his mother. Each and every incident was filed away in the
recesses of his brain.
Sandy taught me a tremendous lesson: if I was willing, he, too, was willing but I
had to prove how deeply I was willing.
The night before Sandy was to be picked up by the bus that would deliver
him to a facility where he would remain until his eighteenth birthday, we had
our last time together. I saw in Sandy’s eyes something that I had not seen
before. A tear? No, but a softening of
his eyes. It was that night that Sandy
taught me, “If I was willing” - God would work through me to plant a seed of
hope in the life of a twelve year old who had not hope.
The Bible is filled with promises that God wants to give to
his children. Faith is the ingredient
that puts these promises into action in our lives, and hope anticipates the
fulfillment of His promises. I also
learned that I am not a harvester, but only a seed-planter; the salt that
provides the savor of my planting is patience.
I learned that “Thy will be done” is not just so many words but a
principle that give us the power to be a seed planter.
Seeds were planted in those conversations with a twelve-year
old who had no hope. I left California
shortly after my time with Sandy, so have no idea if my seed planting resulted
in long term good fruit. But this I
know, seeds were planted and will be harvested when Father God says, this is
the right moment.
Sooooo, my friends and neighbors, let me share a principle
that became the backbone of everything I did, said, and taught to the thousands
of children, who had little or no hope, and
passed through my life. Paul gave
us the principle when he wrote, “Be not
deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap”
(Gal 6:7).
Luke agreed with Paul and gave us the trigger for the
principle when he wrote, “Give, and it
will be given to you…that it is your standard of measure that will be measured
back to you” (Luke 6:38). Matthew
said, it makes a difference where you
sow, some seeds lands on thorny ground, some in rocky ground, some fell by the
road side but some on good soil” (Matt. 13:3-9). Matthew also said, “We are going to reap more than we sow” (Matt. 13:8). Good seeds – bad seeds! You decide!
Paul gives us the bottom line of the Seed Planting
Principle, “if you sow sparingly, you
will reap sparingly” An old country
preacher once said, “We choose whether we will be porch box sowers or sow in thousands
of acres sowers. Paul said, “Each must do just as he has purposed in his
heart….for God loves cheerful giver”.
And now for the promise for those who understand and apply
the principle “And God is able to make
all grace about to you, so that always having all sufficiency in everything, you
may have an abundance for every good deed” (2 Cor. 9:8).
Time to go and find someone I can plant a seed into. Why don’t you come along?
Blessings,New post Sat. Oct 24 on Grampswhatshappeningman.blogspot.com
Gramps
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