To Fly Again by Gracia Burnham & Dean Merrill

Author:Gracia Burnham & Dean Merrill [Burnham, Gracia & Merrill, Dean]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: RELIGION / Christian Life / Spiritual Growth, RELIGION / Christianity / Christian Life
ISBN: 9781414332277
Publisher: Tyndale
Published: 2013-05-03T05:00:00+00:00

10

No Losers

One type of disaster is worse than all others—perhaps not always in its consequences, but in the internal pain it wreaks. That is the disaster we make ourselves.

It is one thing to be minding our own business in life, only to get slammed with an illness or a job loss or some other reversal. It is quite another to torpedo ourselves through an undeniable mistake. The person who steps outside of his or her marriage . . . the trusted employee who mishandles corporate funds . . . the boyfriend and girlfriend who unthinkingly conceive a child one Saturday night . . . the young man who rejects his faith and turns instead to drugs or alcohol . . . the person who betrays a longtime friend. These are not cases of “It happened to me.” These are cases of “I did it.”

The fallout may be swift, or not. If it is slow, we may rationalize our actions for a while. We don’t like to admit that we messed up. We stall as long as we can. Only when outside realities force us to the ugly truth do we admit it. Only when a spouse explodes in enlightened rage, or the police move in, or the doctor confirms that a baby is indeed on the way, do we grudgingly confess what has been going on.

What is sometimes hard for us to appreciate at this point is that more than just fate is working against us. It is more than a matter of our luck running out. Behind the scenes, God is at work, quietly but irresistibly bringing us to his mirror to get a close-up look at what we’re really like. The events of our life are his pressure bars, gradually nudging us where we would not otherwise go, until we are confronted with ourselves.

Then what happens? Once we own up to the fact that we have thrown our own life into a tailspin, is everything lost? Is there any hope to regain our balance? What does God think of his errant child?

* *

While we were living and working in Malaybalay during the 1990s, an ugly thing was exposed at one of our mission schools. It didn’t affect our three children; I was homeschooling them at the time. But it touched the lives of many other families. We were all saddened and upset as the individual was sent back to the States, dismissed from further service.

I remember going to church one Sunday morning with a heavy heart. Our church was on the main street near the top of a hill, and the whine of the jeepneys (minibuses) and the motorelas (motorcycle taxis with a sidecar) chugging up the slope came through the open windows. I slipped into my seat hoping to find some calm.

The service began. I was still rumbling inside with frustration. I found it hard to concentrate during worship.

And then a good friend of mine, Joy Santa Maria, stood up to sing a solo, a new song at the time entitled “In Heaven’s Eyes.

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