“Seek good, not evil, that you may live. Then the LORD God Almighty will be with you, just as you say he is.”
~ Amos 5:14
Hi James and Ellen,
Are there times when you think that it just cannot get any worse that what it is? Are there times when it seems as if you are going from one bad situation to an even worse situation? Do you feel at times that you are in a similar life situation that Amos refers to in his Amos Book – in Amos 5, when he compares the dire punishment that a very ‘angry’ God was going to wrack on His specially chosen guys and gals because of their arrogant disobedience of His spiritual laws and life mandates that He gave to them through Moses by opting to worship manmade inert objects that were handmade from wood, stone, clay and metal to a guy who managed to escape from being killed by a lion only to encounter a bear from which he also manages to escape and then to get to his house where when he puts his hand on a wall a venomous snake hanging on the wall bites him? There are times when God – in order to get the attention of a guy or gal, will see to it that his or her daily, uneventful life routines tank through an illness, a death, a job loss, a financial downturn, a spiritual drought or . . . there are times when God – in order to get the attention of a guy or gal, will drop him or her without any warning into a whirlpool that is filled with vices and/or temptations and/or unknowns and/or darkness and/or . . . there are times when God – in order to get the attention of a guy or gal, will set up real life experiences as trial challenges to teach him or her His patience, His loving correction of his or her mistakes, His rewards for his or her faith, His answers to his or her desperate calls for His help, His . . . if your mindsets today are that living out your lives is nothing more than just ‘a piece of cake’ or ‘a walk in a park’, you do not know God very well. The lives that you are living that are being unfolded by God are two of God’s life creations Who He designed perfect but very different schematics for to live out on planet Earth to reflect His glory back to Him. God has imprinted in you your different life playbooks that are molding you to become perfect images of Himself. God has in the plans that He custom designed before He created planet Earth for you teaching moments after teaching moments all leading to growing the faith seed into maturity that God has planted in you.
Robby Haster was a real good guy. Your dad spent a little over seven weeks with Robby on a summer team that was sent by South American Mission to Bolivia and which your grandmaa and grandpaa administrated and led while the team was in Bolivia. One of the scheduled summer team ministry activities that summer was to spend time for several days with physically challenged kids. Your grandmaa had the responsibility of overseeing a ministry with these physically challenged kids – some who were deaf, some who were born with Downs Syndrome, some who had a physical deformity, etc., and planning for once a month a day of special activities for them. As Robby was lifting up a young gal whose head was abnormally large because of being born with a defect that left water on the brain, Robby ended up with a hernia. At the end of Bobby’s summer team time in Bolivia, your grandmaa and grandpaa had scheduled his summer team to go to Brazil for a couple of days of downtime and debriefing. One way to get from Bolivia to Brazil is by train. Robby’s summer team ended up in a boxcar that had been used to carry iron ore. The floor of the boxcar was covered with fine, black grime. Because of the hernia and because . . ., Robby had become really constipated. As the freight train of boxcars started moving on its way towards Brazil, Bobby realized that he had to do a ‘number two’. Whenever the freight train stopped, Robby would quickly jump out and . . . Robby was in such misery that he did care that a small shrub or small rock really did not . . . by the time that the freight train arrived at a place where it stopped for a longer period of time than normal – during which time some guys tried to load a large cow – which ended up falling under the boxcar that the guys were trying to drag the cow into and after your grandpaa had told a weasel looking guy to move to another boxcar because he was constantly ogling the blond haired, summer team gals making them feel really uncomfortable, everyone on the summer team was feeling really uptight when the freight train – without warning, suddenly began to move as if it was leaving the station. This real life drama that was being played out in a filthy boxcar stage changed from an ambience that was thick with stress, anger and frustration to a scene seconds later that was filled with hysterical laughing, tears and camaraderie when Tamara Brookston – one of the summer team gals, reacted without thinking kicked the weasel guy’s briefcase out of the boxcar – as the guy was trying to get back into the boxcar after having gotten out of the boxcar because your grandpaa . . . your grandpaa was standing next to Tamara when she kicked the weasel guy’s briefcase like a football out of the boxcar. Tamara looked at your grandpaa and said “I don’t believe that I just did that”. Tamara before she joined the summer team that went to Bolivia was the person responsible for assigning Wheaton College students to short term ministry team trips. Tamara was a serious, smart young lady who would be to your grandpaa the last person who . . . so when your grandmaa asked your grandpaa what Tamara said to him after what she did, your grandpaa had a really hard time telling your grandmaa what it was that she said because he was laughing so hard. The angst that everyone was feeling only seconds earlier dissipated in seconds because of what Tamara did.
Verse 14 says, “Seek good, not evil, that you may live. Then the LORD God Almighty will be with you, just as you say he is.” It was actually too late for God’s specially chosen guys and gals to turn back to Him while you still are able to commit your lives to God – if you have not already done that, for Him to always to be there to help you.
Amos 5 (683)