“Someday, when in the presence of our Savior, we will thank Him for every burden, every trial, and every heartache.”
American Presbyterian minister, pastor, Bible teacher, theologian, and radio minister, J. Vernon McGee, was born on this day in 1904. (Died December 1, 1988)
Jesus said there’d be days like this.
Forty years ago, I was in Phoenix working at Southwest Indian School and about to embark upon three weeks working teaching Vacation Bible School on the Navajo Indian Reservation.
If you had asked me at that point, I would have been returning not long after for a long-term placement with World Gospel Mission.
That was the plan.
That was also when I did not take the proverbial left turn in Albuquerque.
But I don’t live in The Land of Enchantment (that would be New Mexico).
And there’s no use trying to live in the Land of What Ifs.
At the risk of falling back into the quagmire of public commentary, none of us can go back and fix the past.
Truth is, we can’t really fix the present. At least not what’s swirling around us.
What we can do is control how we’re reacting.
Life isn’t easy for any of us. Certainly, some have better circumstances than others.
But we all struggle.
People of faith understand that we struggle because this world is not our home.
Maybe our 47 years of house arrest are a good time to remember that.
Right now, it’s hard to have hope, it’s hard to imagine if things will ever calm down and get back to normal.
Maybe they won’t. Maybe they shouldn’t.
Either way, we have to decide how we’re going to respond.
It’s no use sitting around wondering what would have happened if things had turned out differently, if we’d made different choices.
While I’ve never been one to really think about being “homesick for heaven” I’m glad to know that there’s a real Land of Enchantment waiting for us.
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