Sometimes I’m happy to be wrong.
When I’ve given up on someone and later learned that he or she is living a purposeful, faithful, productive life, it’s like throwing open the windows of my heart and letting in a blast of fresh air.
I’m ashamed to admit I have sometimes wearily concluded that folks are just too far gone to ever get back on a good path.
Oh me, of little faith.
It’s hard not to keep piling stones on the wall of cynicism around my heart when it seems so many people reject real help, encouragement and truth, and choose to remain stuck in deception, destruction and despair.
When I feel the urge to jump into somebody’s messy life, I seem to hesitate just a bit longer than I should now.
I find myself thinking things like, “It probably won’t do any good” or “If they want to walk off a cliff, I can’t really stop them.”
That’s never an excuse for not doing what I can to help, but the truth is, I’m not very good at rescuing people.
Thankfully, God is, and long after I run out of patience, energy and resources, He hangs around in the lives of hurting and hurtful people to offer them a way out of their misery.
I needed to remember that, so in the course of one week, God sent three examples of God’s persevering grace across my path to remind me that He never gives up.
The first was a young lady whose troubled childhood caused her to hatefully lash out at everyone who tried to help her.
I found out she is now a happily married, loving mother who reached out to apologize and reconcile with those who had sacrificially loved her when her actions were anything but lovable.
Her name was on my prayer list for many years … until it wasn’t because, I’m ashamed to say, I gave up on her.
But God didn’t, and now she is walking with Him as a “new creation.”
Within days of learning about this gal’s turnaround, I encountered a man who had battled deep depression and an array of lifestyle-related health problems for all the years I’d known him.
I hadn’t heard anything about this fellow for some time. I assumed that since he had never responded to the many folks who had tried to help him over the years, he probably never would, so I lost contact.
I was wrong.
One Sunday morning, there he was at my church, looking much healthier and beaming with joy and confidence. After the service, he couldn’t wait to tell me about all the good things going on in his life.
It was like chatting with Lazarus, up from the grave, and it did my heart much good.
Roll the tape forward a couple of days, and I found myself in the presence of another “Lazarus”—a woman whose story was like a Lifetime Channel movie.
Difficult childhood, bad marriage, rags to riches to rags, addictions, and more.
As the bad choices and consequences compounded and multiplied, it seemed like a hopeless mess.
To me and to others, maybe, but not to God.
He climbed down into this woman’s pit and carried her out, and as I listened to her talk about the rescue, I knew I was listening to someone who had truly encountered the “God of hope” (Romans 15:13).
As long as there is breath, there is hope. When we’ve done all we can, there is so much more God can still do.
No one is beyond His reach.
“Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary.” – Galatians 6:19