Gary shares about a phone call he received during a point of discouragement in his walk. The caller, Ron, inquires of some advice on a pretty complex situation.
This is a story about meeting a man that was very encouraging
to me in several ways.
This was many years ago. I had just returned from a very difficult trip to Southeast
Asia, and I came back jetlagged and kind of down. And and I really then began
to kind of developed into a dark cloud of feeling
like...I remember walking around feeling like I should just do everyone a favor and resign
because I'm over the hill. I'm not useful anymore. So I was really under a cloud as laboring,
trying to get out from under that.
And I got a phone call at the office
one day and the man identified himself as Ron, and he said, "You don't know me,
but I know you because my administrative assistant has been giving me a cassette
of your teachings for several months. And I've come to believe in Christ." And that was very encouraging to me, it was like
I felt like it was the Lord's sending me encouragement to remember that, you know, that he was with me
and he still wanted to work through me.
So he said,
But I, I have a couple of things I'd like to talk to you about,
so I wonder if we could get together. So we got together
a few days later at a restaurant and he was kind of explaining to me
more about how he came to faith in Christ through these teachings. And then he told me that his wife was terminally ill, and they had been married for a number of years. And he said, it's
always been a very difficult marriage. We we just are not close. And he was surveying the prospect of caring for her
through to the end of her life. And he he basically said, "I just don't think I can do that."
And I realized at a certain point
that he was sort of looking to me for approval or I guess
approval of taking that course of action. And so there was a very quiet moment. And, you know, I was thinking, I don't you know, really
I was sitting there thinking, what do I "what do I do now?" And I just feel like the Lord impressed
upon me to tell him the truth.
And so I said, "Well,
you're probably not going to like what I have to say. But, you know,
the Lord wants you to serve your wife. He wants you to to, you know, maintain your commitment to her and to serve her and to care for her
as she through this sickness.
And I know that is really hard. But if you if you are willing to go down that path with him, then he'll give you everything
that you need to do that."
So I, I said my little piece and there was an awkward silence
and he kind of looked away. And then he got up
and grabbed the bill and said, "Thank you for your time" and walked away.
And I was left sitting there
in the restaurant and I thought, Well, "that's probably the last time
I'll ever see that guy."
So fast forward two or three months and again, I'm at the office and
I get a phone call and again, it's Ron. And you know, he was from the East Coast
and very kind of gruff. He doesn't you know,
he didn't say hello or anything. He...I said hello and he said, Well,
I did what you said. I said, What's that?"
He said, Well, after we talked at the restaurant,
I was very upset with you, but I couldn't
get what you said out of my mind. And I realized at a certain point
that the Lord was, you know, really wrestling with me. And he described
how one time on the way home from work, he just stopped the car and said, "okay, God willing, I'm willing to serve my wife,
but you have to help me. And he said, "So that's
what I've been doing for the last couple of months."
You know, he taught dentistry. So he said, "I do that
and I take care of my wife" and he said, "It's true what you said, that the Lord has given me a new heart
for my wife. He's given me a new love for my wife. And he said, as strange as it sounds,
I actually feel joy when I when I wash or when I take care of her
when I when she's been sick."
And he said, in the end,
"the most amazing thing is that our marriage is being healed and that she's come to believe in Christ
because of because of this." So he said, "I'm calling to ask
if you could come over and visit us and to meet my wife
before she goes to be with the Lord."
So I went over a few days later and,
you know, she was sitting on a couch. She was very frail.
You could tell that she was dying, but there was a whole different
look in his eye. Instead of a coldness toward her. You could tell that his eyes were full of love
and that she was full of love. And she she just spent quite a bit of time
talking to me about how hardened she had been against God,
how far she'd been from God for many, many years. And that it was
when he first began to care for her. She was cynical about it because of
the nature of their relationship. But over time, the love that
that he showed her just melted her heart. And to see the two of them, who had been estranged for so long, both having come to the Lord and then letting the Lord heal their
relationship was just so powerful to me.
We were just all sitting
there. I think all three of us were, you know,
tears were being shed by all of us."
And he said... or she said, "I'd like to be baptized
before I go to be with the Lord." And I thought, Well, that's a dilemma
because we usually baptize
by different people in a pool and and she's
not going to be able to take that. So I had him go get a big serving bowl and put a bunch of water in it, and I figured it'd be okay with the Lord. I mean, they, they're not able
to get immersed so we can dip them. And so I just took the water
and and dipped it, did some of it onto his head
and baptized him. And I said, "now you, you can baptize your wife." And I'll never forget him, you know,
pouring the water over her head and just beaming smile on her part
as he baptized her."
And so that's the story. I mean, there's a couple of things
that are really encouraging to me. You know, one was the timing of this event
that God knew that I was discouraged. He knew that I was downcast
and he timed he undoubtedly put it on this man's heart to call me to relay the news, just to encourage me.
And then the other lesson that I really draw
from this that's encouraging is that, you know, it wasn't like I
when I talked to him at that restaurant I had all kinds of wisdom or whatever. I mean, all I know,
it was just as simple as the Lord put it on my heart. "You need to go ahead and tell him
what you know is true. And I didn't want to do that
because I don't like conflict. I didn't hardly know this guy. I had all kinds of reasons
come into my mind for why I shouldn't have to do that,
but I just remember thinking" that's what God wants me to do.
And so I'm amazed to this day how God used that, you know, how it rattled around in his head and
how he eventually came under conviction. And that that's an encouragement to me. It's been an encouragement to me
ever since that when God puts on my heart, something from his word
to share with others, it's not complicated and I shouldn't make it complicated. I should just say that word and trust
that he's going to use that. You know, like it says in Isaiah 55 is
his word is not going to return void. It's going to accomplish
what he what he sends it to do.
And in this case, there was such a beautiful ripple effect from the from the Lord,
to see how his heart was melted and how his wife was drawn to him. So I try to keep that in mind whenever I sense that God's putting on my heart
something to say to the people.