Tuesday, August 16, 2005
Most people go to the mall to shop, which usually leaves them in worse shape financially. But a few people go to the mall to get in shape physically. Every once in a while you'll see them walking at a steady clip, getting their mile or their miles for the day. One of those mall walkers made the national news recently. He was power walking -- which means, don't get in his way, he's coming fast. He must have looked away for a moment, because he walked full speed into a metal pole in the middle of the mall. Now why would a collision with a pole be news? This man has not had any sight in his left eye for years. Suddenly, after running into that pole, he noticed light in that eye. That collision was one of the best things that ever happened to this man in his life. It helped him see!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Collision Vision."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from the book of Job. Here's a man who's probably more associated with human suffering and symbolizing suffering as anybody in all the literature in the world. He really had some painful collisions in his life. He lost his wealth, his health, his children. Our word for today from the Word of God is Job 42:5. His final conclusion on the hard things he ran into -- he says this to God, "My ears had heard of you, but now my eyes have seen you." Job says, "I can now see God as I never saw Him before because of the pain I've been through." Before he ran into those awful losses, he knew a lot about God. Because of running into those ordeals, now He really knows God!
Actually, that's been the experience of so many hurting people over the years. They ran into something hard, but the collision was actually what helped them be able to see things they had missed before - like that man at the mall. Our son would tell you that his personal idol in junior high and early high school was football. Then came the day his knee got seriously injured. I was in the doctor's office when he was told, "You'll never play football again" -- the day he cried as I had never seen him cry before. But he will tell you that he now understands that day as the day his god died -- the god of sports. Not long after that, he surrendered his life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Running into that injury and that depressing news was the hardest thing he'd ever run into. But because of it, he saw what he'd never seen before -- how losable our idols are and how "worth it" living for Jesus is. Today, he's a missionary to Native America.
Maybe you've run into some hard things lately and it hurts. It's confusing; maybe depressing. But consider what God may be trying to do in this collision. Maybe He's helping you be able to see! Maybe He wants to use the collision to expose the presence of an idol in your life, maybe to let that other god die on you. Or He may want to open your eyes to your neglect of your family, or your neglect of Him. Or to show you that your schemes are not the answer, or maybe He's trying to show you that the eternal things are really the only things that really matter.
But for a child of God, the good news is this: there never is a collision without meaning. Open your eyes. Let your Heavenly Father help you see what you might never have seen without this collision.