The Saving of Many Lives...

Beware: May contain copy cat material from Lauren's blog.

On Saturday night, we had the Father/Daughter Banquet at church. Though I've been to the other three we've had in previous years, this one was the best so far for me! I get more comfortable with it each year, and it was a special time with Dad. It was Mattie's first year to go, and my first year to be officially too old to go. However, I got to attend because they let Lauren and I "speak" or, to use a more none threatening word, "talk," except that we always talk everywhere we go, so that wouldn't explain it very well :) Gracie read some verses and introduced us as no one else could have...we really didn't need to say anything after she was done!

Anyhow...as I told everyone that night, ever since I went to the first banquet, it's been my dream to speak at it someday, but I figured that would be when I was married or at least engaged, so that I would have one of those exciting gushy stories to tell...that's what everybody wants to hear anyway, right? So I was asking God, "What am I going to say, Lord?" I can't go tell the girls about this amazing guy in my life whom God gave me after waiting faithfully and purely...I'm not there yet. And then God said, "You get to talk about Me!"

Yeah! It sounded funny at first, but it made complete sense. He is, after all, the "guy" in my life...just MORE than that! And that's what gives me such a great story to share! So I got to share about how God has truly come to fill that longing for romance in me that I didn't think it possible for Him to take care of. It really works! I was really pumped to get to share that...I hardly ever get to "share my faith"...and that is such an applicable way for teenage girls because it deals with a real need we have to be loved. Often the message is just that we should shove the loneliness down or ignore the longings we have and WAIT...be pure, whatever, until Prince Charming appears. But God has gone a step further and met those needs for me instead of leaving me to wait it out by myself! He has truly been gentle and loving and strong like a person for me.

So, I shared this, stumbling around with my bundle of notes a little but mercifully not collapsing on stage :) When I sat down, a girl I had seen before but only just met before dinner came and sat beside me, her face glowing and her eyes sparkling with tears. She looked at me and whispered "I want to have a relationship like you have!" So we got to talk, and I felt my own face start glowing...the Bible says we are the light of the world and the fragrance of Christ, but so often I don't feel very shiny, and I don't think I smell too good either! You can go on living your life day in and day out, not ever seeing that it makes a difference in other people's lives, or that God is really apparent in you. Especially if you tend to mumble in public and stare at the floor a good deal :) But Saturday night, I got to offer hope to a girl who needed to know that Jesus is a safe "person" for her, as well as God. She was "saved" already, but didn't know she could actually have that sheltering, loving relationship she has been so desperate for. Now, in spite of all the disappointment and hurt of past relationships, she knows that there is Someone will never leave her or forsake her.

We went in a back room to talk for a few minutes, but all I could really say was, "I'm so excited for you!" and assure her that it was really possible.

What is so exciting about this to me is that I'm seeing God fulfill a promise that He gave me from scripture a few monthes ago, and has been reminding me of lately. In fact, Lauren mentioned the scripture on her blog a post or two ago http://seetheking.blogspot.com/
and that reminded me once again.

It comes from Genesis 45:5 (though she quoted a similar verse, Gen. 50:20). It's where Joseph has been betrayed and sold into slavery by his brothers, then imprisoned in Pharoah's prison for a while, and finally, through a serious of harrowing events, gets promoted to second-to-the-top in Egypt and through God's anointing and wisdom, makes preparations in the kingdom that will save the lives of people ALL OVER THE THEN-INHABITED WORLD during a terrible famine. So when he is reunited with his brothers and they are filled with remorse and regret and repentance, Joseph confidently tells them,

"Do not be grieved or angry with yourselves, that you sold me here, for God sent me here for the saving of many lives."

I believe that is His personal promise to me, and that He is using the painful things in my life to save the lives of many people. I have no idea what that means practically, but at the banquet I felt like He was saying, "This is the beginning." Of course Joseph didn't understand why he was thrown in a well, why he was sold into slavery, why he was betrayed by a witchy woman who falsely accused him, or why he had to spend two (or was it more?) years in prison for a crime he didn't commit. But in the end he could look at his brothers and say, "I'm glad this happened to me. God has used it to save many lives." If I know that God is going to use my life to save other's lives, I can embrace whatever comes, and rejoice in what has already been. Nothing is wasted with God.