Awful to Awe-ful
Friday, November 23rd, 2007We’ve come to the conclusion that we think you should have an absolutely AWEFUL day today… We’re serious! We hope you have an AWEFUL day!
We want to be clear about what we are proposing. The kind of aweful we’re talking about is spelled AWEFUL… as in AWESOME! We want you to have awe-filled days the rest of your lives. Here’s a neat story to illustrate the awesomeness of going from AWFUL to AWEFUL.
Lightning struck a huge tree up ahead and sent it across the rain-soaked road. The driving rain was falling like liquid bullets. As the driver slowed to a stop, trying to figure out what to do next, another bolt of lightning struck a tree behind the SUV and fell across the road, trapping the driver and his very, very, very pregnant wife on Rt. 54.
Her contractions were minutes apart and he had to get her to the hospital. He got out of the truck to access the situation and instinctively ducked as another lightning strike splintered a towering pine tree nearby.
A few moments later, soaking wet, he jumped back into the truck.
“Honey, we’re trapped. There’s ditches on both sides of the road and the trees are so huge they’re blocking the road in both directions.”
“Thank God they didn’t fall on…” she stopped as one of her contractions hit, “fall on us!” she whispered.
“I’ve got to get you to the hospital,” her franticed husband announced.
Just then a pickup truck pulled up. The driver saw their predicament, told them to stay in the SUV, and explained what he was going to do. In no time at all he had the tree ahead of them cut into enough pieces to clear the way for them.
He refused any payment. He said he was going to stay long enough to clear the other tree out of the road too. Then he gave the couple a tattered business card sized note.
Worn and creased with age, the inscription on its face, dulled by the touch of many fingers read:
You’ve been helped in some way today by a Good Samaritan. In lieu of payment, please pass on the favor to someone else
The couple looked at each other and smiled their gratitude – and their surprise. Their old website address was on the back of the card. They had 1,000’s of the cards printed up themselves years ago after they had seen the hit movie Pay It Forward. Their own thoughtfulness and generosity had turned what could have been an awful experience into an awesomely AWEful experience.
2000 years ago, Jesus the Christ walked many a storm-tossed road Himself. He had plenty of opportunities to turn awful experiences into AWEful experiences. He raised the widow of Nain’s son, (Luke 7:11), Jairus’ daughter (Mark 5:22), and Lazarus (John 11:1) from aweful experiences – they had all died! Their resurrections were AWEful experiences.
He healed lepers (Luke 17:12), a blind man (John 9:1) another blind man at Bethesaida (Mark 8:12), a blind man named Bartimaeus (Matt. 20), a deaf mute (Mark 7:32), a Roman officer’s servant (Matt. 8:5), two people with demons (Mark 5; Luke 8), a paralyzed man (Mark 2, Luke 5), a woman who touched His cloak (Matt. 9, Luke 8); and hundreds of other awful health conditions in His time.
Metaphysically, no matter how dulled, deadened, or comatose we become (that’s what Jairus’ daughter, the widow of Nain’s son, and Lazarus represent) we can be resurrected by the power of Spirit. No matter how sick we are mentally, emotionally, or physically, we can be healed.
No matter how far gone you think you are, the Christ in you can raise the deadened you, the frightened you, the vulnerable you. By the power and might of the Indwelling Christ within you can pray yourself, meditate yourself, visualize yourself, will yourself, affirm yourself, diet yourself, exercise yourself, and divinely order yourself into wholeness and happiness.
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