Make the call

Mar

22

2021

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Mar

22

2021

March 22, 2021 – Click here to listen

Our little dog Cooper is getting up in years. He is nearly 13 now and his activity consists of sleeping all day and only getting up to eat and go to the bathroom. His exercise is limited to occasionally moving from one favorite sleeping spot to another and he visits with us for maybe an hour a day. Gone are the days of tearing around the house and pouncing on his stuffed toys and violently shaking them until they squeak.

I have a friend who put her mother into an assisted living facility. Her mother is 91 and has some serious health issues. I was listening to her as she described her mother’s wish to stay at home, but her health and dementia have made that impossible. Much of the time she cannot even remember her daughter or where she is, but she faithfully visits her and takes good care of her. My friend’s mother stays in an upscale assisted living facility that is more like a resort with every amenity known to man but she is hardly aware of her surroundings and uses none of them.

It brought back memories of having to put my father in a home. He hated having to do that above all else. Taking away his cherished driving privileges was another blow to him. I remembered him from my youth as a fearsome powerful mean man who did not like me but his life was transformed when he became a devout Christian. Unfortunately the damage had already been done to me because when he began to shine the love of Christ, I’d already left home and was descending into the darkness. My father and mother ended up founding four churches and teaching Bible Study. My mother taught ladies for 15 years until her death and my father taught Bible Study for forty years but eventually had to give that up too because his hands shook so much from Parkinson’s disease, he couldn’t write his lessons anymore.

I’m really happy that later in life I forgave him for all of the beatings and abuse he’d given me as a child. The last 10-15 years of his life we found common ground, and much of it was centered around our mutual love for Jesus. I took care of him in the latter years of his life and we developed a bond of sorts. When he was on his death-bed he told me he loved me and was proud of me. It was the first and only time of him ever telling me that.

I asked but he never did answer me as to why he didn’t like me as a small child. He just looked at me with his penetrating blue eyes and said nothing and took his secret to the grave with him. It is of little consequence now. My memories these days seem to mainly focus on the good conversations we had and his trips to Honey Lake. The last words he spoke to me were, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” And I know in my heart that was true.

I’ve always wondered why the Lord put so much emphasis in forgiveness. Now I know. Paul once said in 1 Tim. 1:15 – Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners – of whom I am the worst.  I won’t dare argue the point with the Apostle Paul but I would say that I ran a close second. We are all sinners, my dad made some mistakes, but none as bad as some of mine and the rest of the world is in the same boat. Jesus forgave us both and we made our peace and had some time to get to know each other.

So today I say just forgive and reconcile. Paul said in Romans 12:18 – If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. It took a lot for me to call my father after all those years and tell him I forgave him, but it was one of the best moves I’ve ever made . . .

Make the call . . .

2 Timothy 4:7
I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day — and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.

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