Tuesday, December 11, 2008

Well, girlfriends, this is it. This is the official start to the GEMS devotional blog. I am very excited to have you join us. Please feel free to interact by leaving comments. Welcome!


The Unlikely Teacher

Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” (2 Cor. 4:16-18, NIV)

Sometimes our greatest teachers do not come all nicely packaged as wise professors or experienced pastors or even spiritually mature Christians.

My friend Matt was young, not just in physical years, but younger still in mental years. His childlike mind was disguised in a young man’s body with fiery red hair that curled on top of his freckled face. He giggled when he laughed. He loved God, Elvis and his friends.

Although Matt grew up in poverty, often without electricity, food or phone, he complained little about his lot in life. He was willing to work hard at his part-time jobs even though his family members regularly stole what little he earned.

Matt seemed to have had a hard hand dealt to him, but it became even harder when he was diagnosed with T-cell lymphoma at age 24. Four friends and I became his second family when his own family refused to get help for him. We took him to the hospital, we held his hand as he was given news of his terminal disease, we went with him to chemo appointments, we made hurried runs with him to the ER, we shaved his head for him when his hair started falling out, we made sure that for a time he had a safe, comfortable, “real” home with loving caregivers.

It was hard to watch Matt’s body decaying. We didn’t understand why this was happening to him, but we rejoiced when God chose to answer our prayer and spared him any pain or nausea throughout his entire ordeal.

After several months the end came suddenly when the hospital accidentally nicked a vein while doing surgery. No one realized what had happened until Matt collapsed a few hours later and it was too late. The medical staff kept him alive on life-support until we could get there to tell him goodbye for the last time.

Two weeks after his death Darlene, one of my friends who had helped with Matt, had a very vivid dream that she shared with me. In her dream Matt was standing on the far side of a shining, expansive sea. She said she could tell in one look that he was completely whole, both physically and mentally. He was radiant and his smile was beaming. When he saw Darlene he spoke only two words: “Tell Becky.” Tears were streaming down my face when she relayed this very personal message meant for me.

Matt was on the other side where he finally understood what the rest of us still struggle to understand – that in the end God makes everything beautiful. That all that matters is the things that are eternal.

By human standards Matt endured far greater than the “light afflictions” mentioned in 2 Corinthians 4:16-18. But it had all been nothing compared to the glory of eternity with God.

Even now, years later, I can still see that dream as clearly as if I had dreamed it myself. I carry it with me as a reminder from God that something far greater awaits me, that what matters most is what I can’t see …the person He is creating within me.

Matt experienced what it was like to have a body that falls apart, money that disappears and family members who betray and abuse. But all of that was temporary. The glory that awaited him is forever.

What hardships are there in your life right now? How can we encourage you to view them as temporary? Do you know of any good Christian resources you could share with those who are traveling through some difficult times?