I had lunch with someone I love today; a very special person who has been through a very difficult stretch of life over the last 18 months or so. She is a single mom. Her kids are 18, 12, and 8 years old. She and her three kids were all but abandoned by her ex-husband. He has continued to be engaged with her younger kids to some extent, but for some reason has chosen to remain very distant from her 18 year old son (I’ll call him Bobby). As you can imagine, this has affected Bobby greatly. He has experienced much pain and struggled to make sense of all that has happened in his life over the last two years. At a time when he expected and really needs his dad as a significant strong role model to finish raising him, affirming him as a young man, and releasing him as mighty man of God to be who God has purposed him to be, his dad has all but disowned him. Bobby, although he has experienced some victories and joy recently, has struggled to believe he is valued, to figure out his place in this world, to succeed in school, to stay out of trouble, and to see his future as anything but uncertain.
That mat have changed today! I beleive God has answered prayer and intervened for Bobby. He recently took a career assesment test and met with the career counselor for the results today. For the first time in a very long time, Bobby is beginning to beleive what the Bible tells us about about how God feels about all of us.
God tells us very clearly that we are his sons and daughters and that he loves all of us and has a good and perfect plan for our lives. He tells us that we have been fearfully and wonderfully made; knit perfectly in our mother’s womb! He tells that no matter what he will never leave us nor forsake us! God tells us that we are more than conquerors, and that all things are possible with him! He tells us that he knows every hair on our head! God has created us all, given us all life, you, me, and Bobby! he has a very special purpose for each of us, and has given us very different but wonderful gifts to use for this very special purpose.
Bobby had an “aah ha moment” today, as he began to see and hear from God what his spiritual gifts are and how God can use him and those gifts to serve others and make a future for himself and the family he will have one day. Suddenly Bobby has hope and sees a certain future; God has made him a new creation, and Bobby can see that throughout this time of difficulty God has been right there, in fact, if you look real close, you can see the fingerprints of God all over Bobby.
I imagine that many of you are facing some of the very things Bobby has been facing and struggling with. My hope is that you will know that God loves you, created you with a wonderful purpose and the gifts to accomplish that purpose, and wants more than anything for you to discover what that purpose is and use it to serve others and him every day. I encourage and exhort you to turn to God in prayer, tell him you are tired struggling and striving to blaze your own trail and do what you think is best, tell him that you want to discover his perfect purpose for your life and use your special gifts to serve him, ask him to reveal that to you, allow him to put his fingerprints all over you! You might be surprised, and it might seem crazy, but please trust him and follow his direction…I know if you do you will be Happy in Life and at Work!
To help get you started and excited about knowing that You Were Meant To Be, I have included a great song by Steven Curtis Chapman titled “Meant to Be”. It was recorded specially for Veggie Tales, but is very applicable to all of us, regardless of age. Enjoy!
If you are unhappy, lonely, feeling down, discouraged, depressed, or disillusioned, I encourage you to please read and meditate on these words…God breathed through the prophet Isaiah. If you will take the time to do so, you will begin to feel restored, refreshed, and recharged. Whatever has happened, or is happening in your life to cause you to lose hope, God wants to change that. he wants to fill you with his spirit, the Holy Spirit, the spirit of life, joy, and peace. He wants to rebuild, restore, and renew your life as only he can do, and then he wants you to rejoice and be happy in life and at work!
1 The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me,
4 They will rebuild the ancient ruins
8 “For I, the LORD, love justice;
11 For as the soil makes the sprout come up
A man was exploring caves by the Seashore. In one of the caves he found a canvas bag with a bunch of hardened clay balls. It was like someone had rolled clay balls and left them out in the sun to bake. They didn’t look like much, but they intrigued the man, so he took the bag out of the cave with him. As he strolled along the beach, he would throw the clay balls one at a time out into the ocean as far as he could. He thought little about it, until he dropped one of the clay balls and it cracked open on a rock . Inside was a beautiful, precious stone!
to show us that person the way He sees them, then the clay begins to peel away and the brilliant gem begins to shine forth. May we not come to the end of our lives and find out that we have thrown away a fortune in friendships because the gems were hidden in bits of clay. May we see the people in our world as God sees them.
