Our Sunday school class is reading Crazy Love by Frances Chan, http://crazylovebook.com/. We have only just started this journey yet the first couple chapters have triggered questions for the future and both smiles and regrets of past decisions. In 1994 when my sister, Heidi M. Allen was kidnapped, I attended church yet didn’t have a relationship with Jesus. I honestly thought going to church once a week, helping to teach a Sunday school class, making food for those in need, or volunteering at the food pantry would get me in to heaven. Please don’t misinterpret my thoughts ~ I still believe in all these things and do them yet I know it isn’t my work blessing me with eternity in heaven. It is the relationship I have with Jesus. Chapter two of Crazy Love challenges the reader to ask some serious and thought provoking questions. “If you knew you would die in five years from today ~ what would you do and/or change in your life?” Or “If you were to die tomorrow – what would you change today?” Great questions – some might view them as morbid yet I don’t believe they are. Instead of trusting my sister to Jesus over seventeen years ago, I harbored the pain and loss for over a decade. Worry and stress ruled my heart and life, although sometimes masked behind a partying and smiling face. In the midst of this tenth year, God used a bold and faith-filled student to change my view on the world and open my heart. November 2004 I surrendered my heart, sin, and life to Jesus – instead of worry, stress, fear, anger, and depression I started my journey to a hope-filled and victorious life trusting Jesus. I may never know where my sister is BUT I do know God is in control – as Francis Chan says, “God is the main character in the movie of life…” not me or my sister. Until then, I’ll trust Him. We are not guaranteed tomorrow or even our next minute – yet when we seek His face and have a relationship with Him…we have the hope of eternity. Who are you trusting? How or what would you change if your tomorrow never came? |
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January 2021
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