I don't know what it's like to literally be abandoned even though I can have feelings of abandonment from time to time. It's hard to imagine being left on the doorsteps of a church (or any other place for that matter) unwanted for any number of reasons but that is reality for many people. I can't pretend to understand completely what people feel having been abandoned but my heart hurts for them. Sara's sister Carlie and her fiance, Patrick, came to visit us for the weekend and we had a great time together. Not only am I thankful for Sara's family but I'm thankful to have such a great future brother-in-law. His story is a little deeper than most people I know. From what I understand Patrick was abandoned as a child and finds it difficult to believe in a God who allows children to be abandoned. My heart hurts for him and I hope as our relationship grows I might be able to share with Patrick the message of the gospel in a new light. If anything, God has a heart for the marginalized, the disenfranchized, and the abandoned. He has not turned his back on them but on the contrary yearns to bring them close to his heart. It is not a message of abandonment but of adoption. God is waiting for us to renounce the stories that have defined our past and claim the promise of adoption as his children. My prayer is that my life might be a reflection of that message in ways that Patrick might be drawn to healing grace and find his place in the open arms of God's family. May God be praised!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
As I have been practicing therapy in the real world for 2.5 months, I have come to the conclusion that almost all of middle America is dealing with abandonment issues. While they don't typically recognize that their problems are a result of an attempt to feel that emptiness in their souls with something that won't last. It seems that people are always looking for someone else or something else to define who they are. In a sense, they feel alone and abandoned. They feel that they are an empty shell. They constantly seek out devises that will give them meaning in life. This explains marriage, divorce, remarriage, affairs, drugs, alcohol, depression, suicide and a myriad of other problems as answers to this abandonment.
If God only loved me...If I only accepted God's love for me...If I could love myself. People are always looking for a purpose, a place, a home only to feel that they are worthless and abandoned. I really do believe this is the problem with middle America.
Andy Williams
Abandoned and unwanted -- such hurting words, and yet the very emotions that Jesus felt. He alone knows how to fill that hurt with his love and compassion...and he does use US to help do that, and I know he has placed you where you will have a major impact on Patrick's life and faith...and that of many others.
So many people struggle with God because of the hurts they see in this world. It was very hard for me to accept him as a father when I had seen very ineffective and unloving fathers. Yet he himself got through to me and showed me the perfect father in such contrast to our sinful ones. somehow hearts are changed and faith takes over when we see God himself. May HE fill you with HIS purpose, HIS energy, HIS love and use you to HIS glory. love, mom
I thought that this post was amazing. You really have a way with words and capturing America's problems at heart.
Post a Comment