Tom, I'm glad you brought up this brother's situation. I have a friend I have wanted to share here with everyone, and I believe now is a good time.
I have a very special Christian brother for many reasons. First, he reminds me in all of his life and thoughts and speech of a medieval saint, worthy to have walked Italy with Francis. So, he is dear to my heart. But that's not what's important. It was the story of God's might and power unfolding in his life that makes him so important to me.
In 1989, while I was coming in and out of really horrible backslidding, may God have mercy on my soul, and He did, Praise His Holy Name, I would hang out with the scariest looking biker named Kenny you have ever seen at Kenny's park ministry. He went to a little Baptist Church I attended and there was this little core group of walk-on-the-wild-siders who were going to the park to preach and sig and hopefully lead people to Jesus.
Kenny was so wild looking, and truly he had been a one-percenter, which is not so good, and it was strange that one of the couples that supported the ministry every week just looked so out of place there. This couple was really impressive, they were both very attractive and had very exciting outgoing personalities, and were just "happening" people. They appeared totally traditional, very charming, and certainly had no money problems. And of course just the most glowing picture of the perfect Christian couple you ever saw. With three fairy tale perfect little children, who they both doted on to almost wretched excess. THey both had good jobs. Life was wonderful.
Well, come to find out let's call her Jan, Jan met this dear sweet solid citizen looking let's say Bill while Bill was a young hellion who joined the Hall's Angels in Cleveland and Jan was swept off her feet by it. She said it was just a complete kick roaring around Cleveland, and just talked about Bill being the best looking thing you could ever imagine in those days. They really still looked great, but so VERY
STOGEY.
I yell, "Wow! Far out!" And of course it seemed so insane that they were ever that wild--Bill remains very ashamed of it and gets a pained look when it is brought up-- we became very close friends and fellowshipped together whenever.
Many wonderful things happened with these fervent brethren, and like I said, I was coming and going in my own backslidding, being addicted to playing pool.
So I'm gone awhile, and check back in. Bill is living alone, and Jan has left him for a man she met at work. A very good job in an aerospace industry known as a huge single bar which also functioned as a work place. They later went belly up. (Mcdonald Douglas)
Shocked was not the word. I simply was stunned for days comprehending the madness of it.
Time goes on, Jan doesn't come back, Bill is looking bad. Jan doesn't want him seeing the kids because "he turns them against me." She and the fairytale children are living with her new lover--a complete and utter boring jerk. Jan is in the flesh beyond hope and is so crazy about this idiot it simply seems insane. It was.
Bill is getting more and more depressed but it is now four years, and he keeps on keeping on, preaching the gospel while even carrying a huge cross all around biker heaven Apache Junction. THAT was a sight to behold. Him and Kenny up and down the highway dragging this big cross and praying and speaking in tongues for the city of Apache Junction as they walked. VERY serious brothers, indeed. Love them.
They pray 10,000,000 prayers with each other, with me, with the entire Christian world and Jan doesn't come back. I keep coming and going with my backslidding, checking in.
Jim had been working at a very high paid job but a piece of steel from his workshop went into his eye and left him totally blind in that eye. The other had always been bad. Now Jim isn't working. He and Kenny (Kenny leaving his own wife and 3 little children for the cause), drive to Montana and track Bills wife and children down to once again try to get them back.
By divine miracle they manage to locate Jan and her male companion that she says she loves more than life. He is her reason for being. She has never loved ANYONE like this man. She tells Bill this over and over. Bill gets more depressed.
(I finally met this guy when they returned to Arizona. We're talking utter, and absolute jerk. I tell Jan she must be crazy, this guy is zero. Is she nuts? Jan then becomes my enemy and doesn't speak to me again.)
Kenny and Bill stand outside the cabin in Montana shouting repentance scripture through the windows since no one will come outside. Jan forbids the children to see their father, and calls the police. The boyfriend demands that the police evict Kenny and Jim from the property, and arrest them too. The police let them go and they drive back to Arizona.
Jim is getting more depressed. Actually, he was a walking shell who quoted scripture. I come and go with my backslidding until finally the Lord causes my own happy fun little empire to crash down in great sorrow and despair for many reasons. Suddenly I am so miserable I'm spending a LOT MORE TIME FELLOWSHIP. Wow. How interesting. Take away sin, the sinner comes back....
I take my car over to Bill, who always repairs it for free, and he is so broke he actually takes money. I knew it was bad. He starts moaning and groaning about Jan--who now lives a mile away in an apartment and doesn't want Bill "popping in and out" which she describes as his attempts to spend time with his children who are turning into wild little hellions slowly but surely. Jan will not talk to me on the phone and tells me to quit calling her to preach.
Bill begins the mounful dialogue about how he is still trusting God to bring back his family and I go nuts. I scream at the poor guy that enough is enough. It's been five years. Jan hates him. Forget her. Pretend she's dead. Give it up. It's over and there nothing anyone can do, to wash his face after morning several years and get on with life. Jim says, but I can't, God has shown me I'll get my family back, and I trust Him. I do more rolling my head and eyes, shouting at the man to get real. I rail against his faith like Job's friends. Finally he mumbles, I don't know maybe you're right. I scream at him to forget Pam and get back to serving Jesus. He agrees that is best. I once again go my way, checking in on him on the phone like you do when someone is seriously on the edge and you want to make sure, and by this time phone calls only seem to make him worse, so I quit calling for awhile and get ready to leave Arizona.
Before I do I call to say goodby to my beloved brother and Jan answers the phone. She's back home with the kids, but still mad at me over lecturing her, and puts Jim on the phone. Jim sounds very happy, says it's amazing isn't it? She just came back.
How's it going? Great. He says, We seem to be getting along real well. We'll see. I'm trusting the Lord. That must have been May of l994.
I called Jim and Pam last year from California. Jim was off working somewhere and Pam now stays home and doesn't work. They have a bigger and prettier house closer to the foot of superstitions. It's a lot better, she says. It's what "they've always wanted". They are both back into ministry and Pam is singing again. We were talking as if it was a few months after the park ministry days, and nothing had happened. I told her to give Jim my love and I loved them both. She said she would. She sounded just like the sweetest, happiest person in the world. We didn't talk about the rest, I don't think. Just what was going on right then.
Jim's eye is also much better as he got surgery-- to which I remember I drove him in Scottsdale on at least one visit.
If I had not lived through this story, of course I am not sure I would believe it. There are a lot of things that were even worse about it than of course I could tell here. It stands out as one of the most remarkable things I've ever seen.
This man never gave up, and never doubted for a minute that God had forsaken him. He just got more and more involved in a dear little evangelistic church which really ministered to the down and out.
To me it was a situation without hope, and I truly believed nothing would bring Jan back.
OH. Yes, I believe she said that Kenny and Bill were reviving the park ministry little by little.
I believe that if the Lord can do this once, He certainly can do it again. I hope your friend will read this and pray for the miracle of Jim upon his life. It is very similar, although of course our lives are like snowflakes, and none are identical.
I will also add that of course I prayed for almost 5 years there with Bill for Jan to come back. These prayers got so repetitious it seemed crazy we were praying them. He'd call and say, would you please pray for God to .....and I would get stiff and tense and grimace and pray dry prayers. But in the end I even became a Job's friend. But Jim trusted God that God would not leave him or forsake him, and then it was all as if it didn't happen.
Your friend doesn't need his money as much as he needs to get back into the love relationship with God, and after that the money will take care of itself, and even the blind will see.
This brother's life has taken a turn for the worst, but for certain he is not the first one that ever happened to. Many of us reap the wild wind--what is it, sowing to the wind and reaping the hurricane.
But we're not to look not to circumstances, and they are a shadow or an illusion that God can and will turn around completely, and does over and over.
First we must pray that the miracle of Jim come into this man's life and that every obstacle that looks hopeless, our brother will begin to trust our Lord and say over and over, "I don't know how you're going to prove that this will work together for my good, but I am going to trust you this is working together for my good."
This is not hopeless. When the whales were trapped in the frozen sea, God sent a huge ship to crush up the ice hundreds of miles and the whales followed the ship out. I saw this happen, and know it is true. I believe we should trust that God cares more for this brother even than He did for the whales. And if He can part a sea before our eyes, He can do things just as strange that seem impossible.
Father God, we thank you for beginning the miracle of Jim, and that you will part the sea.
Thank you Precious Jesus, that you are the one who causes the miracles to happen. Father, in Jesus name we pray. Amen. |
