Letters To God

A couple months ago my children told me about a movie they watched and really liked. The movie is called "Letters To God." Trust me if you watch it make sure you have a box of tissues at hand as well as an Advil.

The movie deals with a child dying of cancer who brings hope and joy to others with his letters he sends to God through the US Postal Service. The young boy knows he is going to die, but his family cannot come to terms with the fact seeing that just three years earlier the father/husband died of cancer.

The movie was excellent, but that was not what caught my eye as much as what was at the end. Here is what I found in the movie that stuck in my mind.

2 Corinthians 3:2-3
You yourselves are all the endorsement we need. Your very lives are a letter that anyone can read by just looking at you. Christ himself wrote it—not with ink, but with God's living Spirit; not chiseled into stone, but carved into human lives—and we publish it.

Prior to watching the movie I spend the majority of the day mowing grass at my church. As I sat there riding on the mower I found myself getting consumed by depression due to all of the tragedies that have bestowed me over the past 18 months and just loosing hope in everything. The feelings of guilt and shame overshadowed me and haunted me to the point of loosing focus on God's promises as had been given in my life.

You see over the past 48 hours I have been finding myself tormented by dreams and sorrow just over my family and many other things. When it seems as if your life has just imploded by the strength of an atomic bomb you start to loose the vision of what God has in store for you and even get to the point of loosing sight of His promises for you.

The reality, which was found for me in the movie came back to that verse as well as a comment stated by the boy with cancer. He stated to his mother to not loose hope because God chose her to be his mom.

Very powerful! God has chose us for the journey at hand regardless how hard it is and how hopeless it may seem. You are that living letter. Sometimes there are things that are painful as other times there are things to bring joy. The truth is God has not forgotten you He chose you for the challenges because He believes that you can do it and make it to the other side.

Take a look at what Jeremiah was told by God who doubted his abilities and the journey he was about to go through.

Jeremiah 1:5-8
 ⁵"Before I shaped you in the womb,
   I knew all about you.
Before you saw the light of day,
   I had holy plans for you:
A prophet to the nations—
   that's what I had in mind for you."
 ⁶But I said, "Hold it, Master God! Look at me.
   I don't know anything. I'm only a boy!"
 ^7-8God told me, "Don't say, 'I'm only a boy.'
   I'll tell you where to go and you'll go there.
I'll tell you what to say and you'll say it.
   Don't be afraid of a soul.
I'll be right there, looking after you."
   God's Decree.

God knows our journey and knows the hits we are going to endure. But do you know He also knows the victories we will achieve if we stay the course and the rewards that are on the other side? Sometimes we stop at the fact that God knows the issues we will go through giving the enemy the opportunity to doubt Gods end product for our lives.

This is the way we need to look at it. For those who do not know me I like to cook as much as I do eat. When making something you must prepare all of the ingredients to a dish, add them together at the proper time and cook at the proper heat and time. Not following the steps or diverting from the directions can result in a catastrophic disaster. The earlier you catch the problem the better chance you have to have an end product that is perfect in the end.

The other day I made pasta sauce. I never made it because I defaulted to that being my wife's specialty and was nervous to venture out. As I reflected on what I observed and what I have tasted I came up with a product that turned out good. If we allow our fears to dictate our directions or desires we will never be on the road to where God needs us to be, missing out on His blessings.

God wrote His plans on your life before you where even born. It was not by hap-chance, but by divine design. Furthermore the things you go through and experience are not a punishment or something by chance but by divine desire for God's glory through your life.

Think about it, you are a chapter in a volume of books in God's library that He cherishes. The question remains do you want your life to be just a footnote or do you want it to reflect a chapter of adventure.

I believe we are either a testimony or a statistic. Which do you want to be?

CAL