Surprised by Life Change

October 12, 2009

Sometimes God sneaks up on you. I know God is all round us, always with us, and it is us that must walk in constant awareness of that. Yet still, sometimes God is sneaky.

In November 2006, I was called by a friend at West Ridge Church. She said that she has a friend dying of cancer and asked if I would come visit. Death was imminent and I was asked if I would come regularly to visit and walk all the way to death with this lady.

For the next several months I visited a woman with Pancreatic Cancer nearly once a week. I would sit in a chair by the bed. Sometimes the light in the room was too much, sometimes she wanted more fresh air. Sometimes I would have to leave the room for long periods of time while a nurse or her Mother attended to some of the more harsh symptoms of that disease. She would ask about God. Oftentimes, she would make me think of things in a way that I had not thought of. The kind of profound perspective that God gives to those who are suffering.

Quite honestly, I’ve deleted several other details from this post. Being a part of the end of Laura’s journey and performing her funeral had a profound impact on me. She went to be with her Savior on April 8, 2007. It was Easter Sunday.

All along the way there was Laura’s husband, John. This man had a deep love for his wife. He was doing everything he could to be with her, and to keep her unaware of other struggles that were knocking on his door. I was there as God’s representative. I’m pretty sure this 6ft. 5in. (I think he’s taller than that) man would have liked to give God a right hook to the jaw during his wife’s suffering. Since God incarnate wasn’t available, I kept that thought very near the front of my brain. John also had a lot of questions of a different sort. He declared he was not a Christ-follower and would find his peace in other ways.

A little while after Laura’s death I ran into John in a store in town. It was the day before Easter. He said he wanted to come to church to honor Laura’s death, but wasn’t sure if he would. Some of the last words she spoke to him were asking him to come to know the Savior, and because she had asked him to he would at least make a step towards that. I told him to come and he could sit with my family. He showed and I sat the whole service praying for John, hoping he would respond. Nothing remarkable happened, but John said he liked it and ‘might’ come back.

I guess he has come a few times since. I kind of lost track of him.

My family was at Burt’s Pumpkin Farm with the rest of North GA yesterday afternoon when I got a text message. John had been at West Ridge Church yesterday morning, listening to Brian talk about salvation and giving the opportunity to be baptized right away in the service. John had indicated he might come back. Sure enough during our invitation time in the 6:00 p.m. service at West Ridge ‘Goliath’ stood up out of the corner of my eye. I was on stage setting up the offering, and it was all I could do to keep it together. I watched him go into that tub and declare the decision he had made to be a follower of Jesus, and thought about how Laura finished her journey with grace, and how God is still using her life.

I have no idea why I am surprised. That may be a different post and some things I have to work on. I’ll just say I have renewed passion to pray for those who still have questions and am thankful for a God who never stops being the answer to life’s toughest questions.

Everyone Belongs,

Paul

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