Butterfly effect on faith

Wow…heavy emotional day today.  Very busy at work.  I like it that way.  Im learning to be very efficient.  I have to channel my A.D.D. and make it work for me.  At the end of the day I had a long intense chat with an old friend.  Well let me give you just a bit of background.  This was/is a dear friend that I’ve known for years.  This friend did something quite horrible and wounded me very much over the course of several years while she was admittedly far from God.  She told me this really cool story today that I had not heard.  She was rebelling from God and essentially was shaking her fist at God saying leave me alone.  Why do you love me?…im your worst kid she cried out to God.  At that same time, I was leaving a movie and I had this overwhelming thought that I needed to call this friend right then.  Keep in mind since the pain occurred I had not talked to this person for three years (and no…this person is not my ex…but close).  So it was with a bit of trepidation that I called.  So as she was shaking her fist, her cell phone rang and it was me.  I told her…that I had forgiven her completely.  She was really at a loss for words.  This happened about a year ago.  She told me, that the phone call was one of the key steps that she needed to turn her life around.  Now, I didn’t do much, just listened to the prompting of the Holy Spirit and had a heart of forgiveness.  Still for God to use you in someone’s life like that is pretty dang cool.  We had chatted with each other a few times since that point, and each time she is absolutely remorseful for the pain that she helped create in my life.  Each time, I forgive her…I harbor no bitterness or ill will whatsoever.  My friend Jeff E. put it this way…Hatred and bitterness is like taking poison hoping the other guy is going to die.  It just doesn’t work.  So be careful if you have hate or bitterness in your heart no matter how justified you feel.  If you have hate…then there just isn’t a lot of room for God in there.  Now this friend was genuinely broken and remorseful.  It was a very nice chat, life is too short to hate.

Now someone that has good mental health down to a science is my new pal…Ms. Texas.  God is going to use her in amazing ways.  Its quite clear to me.  She had some amazingly brutal and unfair things happen in her life.  Comparatively speaking, my life has been a cakewalk compared to hers.  You ask…why?…why did God allow this to happen to me?  Or how could a righteous God allow evil to happen?  That is a difficult question answer.  First off, God did not intend for us to live in sin.  It was one of the down sides of the whole free will thing.  If he would have wanted perfection, he would have created robots.  So it was not God’s intention for evil to fill the world.  Rather, he can give Believers strength to endure the evil and eventually overcome it.  Another reason why God allows this to happen is so that we can be a ministry to others.  Ms. Texas went through something terribly unfair.  Now she has a special ministry to others that are walking on the same “unfair” road that she is.  Take me for instance.  I can minister to divorced people like no other non-divorced person can.  I remember each pastor or counselor that we went to.  They all had book knowledge, yet they had no idea the suffering which I was enduring because they never lived it.  All their experience in theoretical while mine is practical. Now I believe I can counsel a couple in crisis better than anyone.  Because I’ve failed, I know how to teach a class how to be a great husband better than anyone.  Because I’ve failed…I know when I do become a husband again I’ll be the best husband in the world.  “There is no greater teacher than failure” rick Beeman.  Im not sure if anyone ever said that before so let me trademark it.  Hold I’ll google it to check.  Nope nobody said it according to google.  So back to Ms. Texas…she is using the pain that she went through to minister in a special way to people who would be unreachable by conventional standards.  She is living proof that what the enemy meant for evil God will turn for good.  There are some amazing things about to take place within the next few months.  This blog should remain to be interesting.  Thank you for reading.  I even used Ms. Texas’ story as an illustration to encourage another friend today.  This friend is really questioning God because of the past pain that has happened in his life.  I shared Ms. Texas story and encouraged him not to give up.  His pain will minister to someone else that has that very same pain in the very near future.  So because one girl was a blessing…look at the ripple effects that  that act of kindness will have.  The butterfly effect of faith.