Don't Lose Hope

One of my favorite places to go when "surfing the net" is The Ranch. This is a young man, Eric Elder, who loves the Lord, his family of six children and has a wonderful talent for playing a soothing piano.  He continues on after losing Lana last November,  the wife that he claims held it all together for him for almost 20 years.

from Eric's message today, a quote from Howard Ivan Smith

“It has taken me many months to get to the point where I can say, ‘All right, the future is not going to be what you thought it was.  It’s gone, and you’re not going to have it.  You just will not have it.  Your future went with him.  Now you’ve got to build a new one.’”

Eric goes on to say:

I didn’t like reading those words at first, but over time I knew they were true for me, too.  I’ve come to realize that the future is not going to be what I thought it would be, either.  It’s gone, and I’m not going to have it.  I just will not have it.  Now I’ve got to build a new one.

“This isn’t the direction I thought my life was going to take.”  And at some point you’ve had to let it go and say, “It’s not going to happen; they’re not coming back,” just as I’ve had to say, “OK, she’s not coming back.”

 

He also included this anonymous quote:

“The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago.  The second best time to plant a tree is today.” 

 

I thought of that quote this spring as I looked at two pine trees in our yard, one of which I planted this past Christmas in honor of Lana, and the other which Lana and I planted 19 Christmases ago, almost 20 years now. .........For some reason, this has been an amazing year for fruit trees, and for all the trees that Lana and I planted with the kids over the years, this is the first time any of them has produced an significant amount of fruit........All these trees started bearing fruit–just this year...............When I saw all these trees bearing fruit, part of me was tempted to be really sad and wonder, “How could Lana have missed all that fruit?”  But the other part of me said, “Lana would be thrilled to know that all her hard work has paid off and is now bearing fruit–fruit that will last.”...........

“Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up” (Galatians 6:9).

Even though Lana is gone this year and can’t enjoy it herself, we’re all enjoying the fruit of all that she’s done.........

......So not everything we plant will bear fruit.  But I want to encourage you to keep planting and planting and planting because at the proper time you will reap a harvest, too, if you do not give up!

 

I encourage you to go to The Ranch and continue to read from Eric's message of Hope while listening to his soothing piano music, it is good for the soul.

 

An interesting note about Eric,

this is another series of excerpts from one of his messages.

......When I was living for my own desires, doing whatever felt good, I was on a path headed towards destruction and didn’t even know it.  I was just following my desires wherever they led me.......For a few years in college, my desires even led me into homosexuality, being sexually intimate with other men........I didn’t realize that the way I was fulfilling that need wasn’t the way God wanted me to fulfill it.  I was just having fun, not realizing the danger that this presented to my life, nor the danger that this presented to God’s plan for my future....... It never occurred to me that I could possibly get AIDS until several years later, just a few days after I had put my faith in Christ. ...... In the following week, as I waited for the results of the test to come back, I was afraid for my life.  I wasn’t afraid for my soul, because I had already put my faith in Christ.  I knew that God had forgiven me and that He would bring me to live with Him in heaven, even if I did die.  But I didn’t want to die.  I wanted to live the fullest possible life that God had created me to live.

****I don’t know why I was spared when others haven’t been, whether they’re Christians or not.  It certainly wasn’t because I deserved it.  But I knew that whatever the reason, I now had another shot at life.  I felt as if God had picked me up off the path of death and had put me on the path of life, and life abundant.

On this new path, God has given me a wife and six kids as a result of our sexual intimacy—life abundant!
What difference can it make to follow God’s plan for your life instead of your own?  For me, for my wife, and for our six kids who might never have been born, it’s made all the difference in the world****