THEN WATCH YOURSELF THAT YOU DO NOT FORGET

Due to the experience my family has gone through over the past fourteen months we have seen the awesome, miraculous, power of God at work time after time. Now that a wonderful job opportunity has opened up I will be forging ahead into some new paths for me and new opportunities for our family to serve others.

But you know what? Even with this new job I am going to miss some things that I never ever want to forget.

Here are a few.

I don’t want to forget what it felt like and the excitement of being told we no longer need your services, talents or gifts, and from that moment knowing that I and my family was now in the sheltering protection of God.

I don’t want to forget what it is like to get up every morning and go to bed each night with basically the same prayer, “God, we will not survive this without you. Without you we can not get through this day and certainly not tomorrow.”

I don’t want to forget what it is like to find $50.00 in an envelope with your name on it, or to have your pastor call on multiple occasions that someone has made an anonymous donation to our family in significant amounts, or to find $400.00 in an envelope on the dash of your car as it was left overnight, or to have home furnishings be left at your front door without a note.

I don’t want to forget what it is like to have my wife tell me that we need $2,500.00 to meet our obligations and to catch up and by the end of the day someone leave an anonymous gift of exactly that amount. Or to have a brand new printer/scanner/copier left just this morning at our front door, or for someone to leave a note and a $60.00 Kroger card that bought groceries.

I don’t want to forget what it was like to go to a food pantry for the first time in my life and no one in my family know where I had gone, to sit with people also in a tough time, to have someone say to me as they were loading up the car, “John, you can not do anything to change God’s love for you.”

I don’t want to forget when Andrew Peacock heard of my loss of work and he said, “Be patient. God is in this, and many people are going to be watching how you handle it.” Nor when he said just two weeks ago, “Tell me when this is over, because I have been praying for you three times a day every day since it started.”

I don’t want to forget what it was like to have a brother-in-law go far into a financial hole on our behalf, or to have another brother-in-law give us $1,800.00 because God had blessed him and he wanted to bless us.

I don’t want to forget multiple dinners, breakfasts and lunches that people purchased so that they could encourage us. Or food that was given to us from co-ops of people we do not know.

I don’t want to forget what it was like to sleep overnight in our home with our lights turned off and knowing there was not one thing I could do about it, but the anonymous gift that showed up the next day took care of the need.

I don’t want to forget what it felt like to sit in a Kroger parking lot knowing both the home phone and the cell phones were cut off on the same day.

I don’t want to forget me picking up a car from Randy Taylor and McDonough Tire not knowing how I was going to pay for it, and finding a $500.00 set of tires on my car with an invoice that said balance due, $0.00.

I don’t want to forget what it felt like to have my terminally ill, eighty-three year old mother hand me a check for $2,500.00 out of her burial account so that we might survive.

So for today, I have many memories.

And I have a resolve in Christ.
And I have faith in God.

And during these fourteen months, I had anger, frustration and disappointment,

But not one time, not for one second, did I ever fear. Because God had promised He would walk us through this and would deliver us in the end.

Joseph in the Bible said to his brothers, “What you intended for evil, God intended for good.”

This has been the greatest fourteen months of my life and I am thankful that I had the opportunity to go through this season and to have our daughters witness the daily deliverance of God.

And here is my reminder to remember.

“Then watch yourself, that you do not forget the Lord who brought you from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.” Deuteronomy 6:12

Jot down a few things that only God could have accomplished on your behalf. Record what you have seen, what you have heard, and what you have witnessed personally.

And that you know was the awesome, miraculous power of God.

JHH