This has been driven home, again, over the last week or so. As my friend and I have talked with one another he has said, "I am overwhelmed by how God has protected me and my family. I am so blessed to have not had to experience some of the pain that so many others have had to endure. I am so grateful that God has made me a bubble boy."
What I love about this is that he is identifying God's power, grace, and mercy in his life's story.
So many times in the Christian world when people talk about their faith journeys they say things like, "My story is boring. I grew up in the church..." That's not a boring story at all! That's a beautiful story of God's grace to multiple generations. It's wonderful that God protected and provided for you to "never really know a time when I didn't know God."
On the other hand, it's beautiful to hear the stories of people who God saved in more ways than one, their past filled with brokenness and regret.
My parents are divorced. It was really hard to be a kid growing up in a broken home. When I went away to college I was still pretty angry about it. I wasn't all that pleased with God that this was my story. It wasn't until after we had been living in Normal, IL and I was being discipled by Bob Smart that I began to embrace my whole story. He taught me that this was part of God writing a beautiful story of redemption in my life. Instead of running from it, I needed to embrace it.
The things in our past have shaped us into the people that we are today. Our past matters to God. He is writing a beautiful story of redemption.
I would love to hear your story. Drop it in the comments below...
0 comments:
Post a Comment