Isaiah 55:8-11 "For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways', declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall My word be that goes out from My mouth; it shall not return to Me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it."
I have been pondering some things lately. I recently learned of a few "friends" on my GBM Facebook page who have died (or their loved one has died) from their cancer. Some people also announced that their brain cancer (or loved one's cancer) has returned with a vengeance. I saw one announcement yesterday regarding a young man in his 20's who was diagnosed two months before Wayne who died yesterday. I read this right after I excitedly announced on Facebook that Wayne was feeling so good that he took a ten mile bike ride with me. Seeing these two different outcomes has made me stop and think. I have been pondering how life at times appears unfair. Why would one person do so well and another one succumb to their disease? It's not something I have an answer for at this time, and may never have one.
The only thing that I can rest in is knowing who God is and knowing that He is sovereign and in control. Ultimately, I believe that all of your prayers for Wayne has made a tremendous difference in our lives. God is using your prayers to bring Himself glory through our trial.
While watching the "Behold Your God" series, I was introduced to a Scottish preacher from the 1800s named Robert M'Cheyne. I love this quote from him: "You will never find Jesus so precious as when the world is one vast howling wilderness. Then He is like a rose blooming in the midst of the desolation, a rock rising above the storm." I have found this to be so true during our storm. In the midst of the dark valley, God has been that rock to us. One could say that life wasn't fair to M'Cheyne as well. God was using him mightily in Scotland and yet he died at the young age of 29 from a fever. As you study the life of M'Cheyne, you find a man who was devoted to God. He spent his short time on earth pursuing God with a passion. In his journal they found an entry that said, "Rose early to seek God, and found Him whom my soul loveth. Who would not rise early to meet such company?" Good question...one I started asking myself. Studying his life has made me stop and ponder my life and choices that I make each day. What do I do when I first wake up in the morning...check Facebook, email, texts. Is that really important in life? God has been working in my life challenging me in this area.
M'Cheyne was known for not only loving God, but how he loved people. It is said that when M'Cheyne would walk down the street, people would take their hats off to him. There once was a visitor who was a little confused when this happened and a town drunk told him, "There goes a man who loves your soul." His Bible was actually tear stained from caring for people and praying for them. He said once, "A man who loves you the most is the man who tells you the most truth about yourself." How true is that? Sometimes we can't see things in our lives and we need loving people to point us back to Christ. Someone who truly loves you will speak truth into your life, not just what you want to hear that makes you feel good. Sometimes pain is good. It may not feel like it at the time, but in the long run it is good for us. I have seen that in my own life. God has allowed others to point things out that I didn't see (or want to see). Although it was painful, it was so rewarding at the end!
M'Cheyne was also a man who sought out holiness. "A man is what he is on his knees before God, and nothing more." Wow...that one struck a chord with me. How much time do I spend on my knees before God? Not enough... He also said, "Live nearer to God, and all things will appear little to you in comparison with eternal realities." I have seen this in my life. The more I learn about God, the more the world loses its appeal. It is said of M'Cheyne that "His main anxiety was to know the mind of Christ". Okay...this totally hit home with me as God is at constant work in my life about things I get anxious about that are silly. (There is a reason I have Matthew 6:25-34 and Phil. 4:6-7).
It was out of this love for Jesus that motivated him to love others. He is quoted saying, "The Christian is a person who makes it easy for others to believe in God." After reading that I asked myself. Am I a person who makes it easy for others to believe in God or do I give God a bad name? I so long to be someone who points people to Jesus in not only what I say, but in how I live and how I love. I want my life to glorify God and for them to know that I love them the way M'Cheyne loved those around him.
Although M'Cheyne only lived 29 years on this earth, I believe that he lived those years to the fullest for Christ. That is my desire...to live every moment I have on this earth to the fullest for Christ.
"Live for eternity. A few days more and our journey is done." Robert M'Cheyne
James 4:14 "Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes."
Psalm 144:4 "Man is like a breath; his days are like a passing shadow."
Psalm 102:11 "My days are like an evening shadow; I wither away like grass."
May we all strive to become more like Christ so that the world around us says, "There goes a man/woman who loves your soul." May we point people to Christ with our short lives here on earth and may we live for eternity!!
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