Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I hope you're all enjoying your turkeys and football and time with family. It's a bit weird celebrating an American holiday in another country- sometimes we try to get together with some American friends, sometimes we just decide to stay home. :) As you are probably aware Thanksgiving is an American holiday only- British people don't have any reason to celebrate it really. For me one of the best things about Thanksgiving is having dinner with my family, watching some football on TV, going for a walk in the countryside (with or without snow as the case may be) and eating leftovers. :) I do miss that here. I think we'll try to have dinner with some people over the weekend since today and tomorrow are normal work days for us here.
Tonight is the monochrome competition for the camera club, which I'm submitting 4 of my images for. My style is very different from anything I've seen here in the club, so I'm interested to see how they go over with everyone, and especially with the judge. If they do well that would be great for my relationships in the club, because it will give people a chance to get to know me better and provide a good conversation topic. I'm certain that I'm the most active new member that they've ever had, because they all seem surprised that I'm volunteering for things and stuff like that. Anyway pr that the competitions would be a good chance to build relationships!
I have some very exciting news- it may not strike you as all that exciting if you don't believe in Gd, or wouldn't call yourself a follower of JC. But to me it is very exciting news indeed because it reminds me of a deep truth. None of us have wanted to let JC be in charge in our lives- we want to be the king, the ruler of our own life, and because of that we're separated from Gd. No amount of work will get us into heaven, because the condition for entry isn't based on how good or bad we are. In the eyes of a holy and perfect Judge not one of us is truly good. So on to my good news, but first a story.
I first met my great uncle Odis when I was 7 and my family had just come back from being stationed in Germany. My early memories of him have always stuck with me, and even at such a young age I formed an idea of the sort of man that he was. He was from Alabama, a culture very different from Michigan and my family culture was even more different than that of our extended family. He was an alcoholic, a coarse man, at times a vulgar man- he was in some degree a racist (I'll never forget asking my mom why Uncle Odis called a black person the n-word, and didn't he know that was wrong) but mostly he was a self centered alcoholic. Not that he didn't have any good qualities at all, but as a child those things stood out to me. My perception of him didn't change as I got older and he grew older and more dramatic in his faults. I heard the stories of things he'd done when he was younger, and he wasn't the sort of person that I felt I could really respect. Well over the past 5 years his hard drinking and smoking caught up with him, and the doctors warned him that if he didn't quit it would surely be the death of him- he'd heard that for probably 25 years at least, but this time the clock was really ticking. A few months ago the doctors told him that he only had a few months left as he had terminal lung cancer.
Now when I heard that news I can't say that I was terribly surprised- the more surprising fact is that he lived to be 80 years old considering the smoking and alcoholism. But I was quite struck by the fact that he had advance warning of his impending death, not something everyone has, and I wondered what he made of that. Was he ready to die? Did he wonder what would happen when he died? He has a son who is a pastor, and I wondered if he gave any further thought to what his son had told him about JC and about Gd. Did he wonder why he'd been given advanced warning? I was strongly impressed with the idea that Gd wanted to give Odis the chance to change his mind about JC- to think again on what he'd been told in the past, and consider again whether he could face a holy Gd who has the right of a perfect Judge to ask what he'd done with his life.
So I pr-ed for Odis- everyday I thought of him and thought of that one less day he had to decide, but also that one more day he'd had to think seriously on these things. I asked Gd to be merciful to Odis, although maybe from a human perspective he'd done nothing to deserve Gd's mercy. After all, he made a mess of his life, wasted it in heavy drinking everyday, and who knows the impact he had on his wife and family. But I know that Gd IS in fact merciful- compared to Odis my life might look spotless, but the fact is I am imperfect too and that Gd provided a way for every imperfect person (which is every one of us) to be able to have a relationship with him, and have our lives made new. I knew that Odis' son was telling him about JC and I just keep pring that Odis would see what an amazing offer Gd was giving him. The offer of a great exchange- JC's perfect life in exchange for his messed up life. Being far from Gd exchanged for a relationship with him. An eternity separated from Gd for an eternity with him. But to be honest Odis seemed like an impossible case- he was so set in his ways, would he be willing to let JC be the king of whatever bit of his life was left?
A few days ago, 3 or 4, I heard that Odis had died. When I heard that news I sincerely hoped to have the chance to see Odis in heaven one day and see him as a new person. And the day after I heard the most amazing news- Odis and his wife both decided to let JC be king of their lives about 3 weeks ago! What wonderful and amazing news!! To have lived lives that were very hard toward Gd, wanting to run their own lives their own way, and at the age of 77 and 80 to agree to follow JC instead is simply an amazing thing! So now I will have that chance to talk to Odis someday and see him in a new way- as one who took JC's offer to swap lives and therefore be made right with Gd, although he took it at almost the last possible moment.
Sometimes when people hear stories like this they think, "What kind of Gd would accept a person like that? How is that fair? He was such a bad person he should have gone to hell." In fact it's natural to think that really. But the fact is that not one of us deserves to go to heaven. None of us have met Gd's standard of a perfect life lived for him where he is the King of our lives. Not all of us have messed our lives up to the same degree, and some of us have even had pretty good looking lives. But we still can't reach that standard. That's why we need JC, and that's why he came- to pay the price for our rebellion and imperfect lives, and to live a perfect life himself. So those of us who are already followers of JC don't get what we deserve either. As for me, I think Gd is truly amazing that he has provided a way for us to exchange our lives, be they in our opinion only a little bit dirty or entirely messed up.
So that is my good news- that a man with a hard heart and a messed up life decided at 80 years old to take JC's offer of an exchange instead of living the rest of his life his own way. No life is hopeless, because the bbl says "What is impossible with man is possible with Gd."
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