Newsletter - January 2005

Dear Friends:

How was your 2004 in retrospect? Have you taken time to review the ups and downs, the lessons learned, the relationships developed, and the changes that you are learning to live with? This is a time of year when pause and reflection help us to move forward with more wisdom and light.

For me, one particular story comes to mind and still has me pondering God’s mighty and loving hand. In April I received a call from Gordie, a man in our community who owned a chicken take-out restaurant that he had purchased many years ago from my parents. Because he had worked for them since he was a teenager, I knew some things about Gordie through my parents. But now he wanted to tell his own story and he wanted it written down so it could be shared over and over again. Because of his heart to get his message out, I feel free to share it with you today.

He sat in the big chair in my study and began to tell how his mother had died of cancer when he was only 14 years old. At that time, he had grown up in church and truly believed in prayer. But God didn’t answer his prayer for his mother’s healing and, as a result, Gordie decided that he and God would be going separate ways. Gordie was determined to make his own way in the world and began to do so. He left home at age 15 because home wasn’t the same without his mother there. He lived with friends for awhile and then with his sister. He took a dishwashing job at the chicken take-out and earned enough to live on. He also began to use alcohol and, eventually, marijuana. He felt invincible. He needed no one. He could handle life on his own terms.

About that time, he met and married Shelly and, together, they dreamed of owning the take-out restaurant where he had worked for many years already. Gordie began to run those ideas past my parents, who owned the business and who knew they would soon be ready to sell it and retire. All these years, though, my parents were talking to Gordie about his broken relationships with both his fathers: earthly and heavenly. Gordie felt the tug toward spiritual renewal, but was not willing to bend.

Gordie and Shelly’s family grew as two children were born over a period of years. They did purchase the restaurant and it prospered. A brief encounter with prostate cancer when Gordie was 40 years old jarred him a bit, but once the surgery was over and he was pronounced cancer-free, he hardened his heart and continued to flee the presence of the God he had rejected so many years ago. Shelly, though, had turned to God a few years earlier and she and the children were getting involved in a church that nourished and loved them. Essentially, this was the condition of Gordie’s life as he entered 2004.

But this past December 31, he was buried. He had stepped from earth to heaven two days earlier and the service on New Year’s Eve was a true celebration of the new life he had found. Here’s what had happened to Gordie between January and December of last year.

In February, he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. As soon as he heard those words from the doctor’s mouth, he realized he was no longer invincible. He knew he needed God and that, somehow, even though he had fled God’s presence all these years, he knew that God was still willing to take him back. He and Shelly went to my parents who had so faithfully talked to him of spiritual matters for 30 years, and together they prayed a prayer that brought forgiveness, reconciliation, and joy to Gordie’s heart.

When he sat with me in April, he said he could not describe in words the change that had occurred. He said (really, he did!) that cancer was the best thing that ever happened to him because it brought him to God. I couldn’t’ believe the change in his demeanor, his attitude, his face. He was filled with warmth, joy, love, and peace. God had truly entered his life and made a visible and radical change.

Second opinions, treatments, trips to university medical centers, and surgeries followed, but nothing could stem the tide of the virulent cancer. For the few months left, Gordie and Shelly were both involved in their church and they focused on their relationship with God, with each other, and with their children. By time Gordie left this world, Shelly could say, “This was the best year of our lives. There are so many good memories of these past few months.” Just think about that. A year of cancer, chemotherapy, pain, distress and, yet, she has the good memories because of Gordie’s changed heart and his commitment to the God whose love had never diminished through all the years of his running.

I did write Gordie’s story last April because he wanted as many as possible to know what God had done in his life. He didn’t know at that time that by year end he would have entered eternity, but he did know that whatever God chose to do with him would be OK. If you want to read the story in more detail, you can click on the link below:
http://www.beverlyvankampen.com/newsletter/gordie.shtml

But now as I look back on the last year of Gordie’s life, I have three thoughts that I would like to share with you:

First, we live in anticipation of eternity. A year ago, Gordie had no idea that 2004 would be his last year on earth. For some of us, 2005 will our last. It has nothing to do with age, present health, or circumstances. Life is uncertain. Life ends. Let us commit together to live each hour to its fullest, to depend fully on God to lead us through every day, and to live in such close relationship to Him that dying will be just a small step and not a giant leap.

Second, we must never give up hope. Gordie had a grandmother who prayed for him for years. It would have been easy for her to believe that he would never return to God, that he was too strong-willed and hard-hearted to ever acknowledge the error of his ways. But God did bring him back and Gordie was absolutely transformed. We all have people we love who have not come back to the God who waits. Don’t give up. As long as there is breath in the body, there is hope that light will break through and the person who is the focus of our prayers will turn to God.

Third, we know that God waits to be found. All Gordie had to do was to acknowledge his need of God in his life and God came running to take him in. God wants to meet us. We just need to turn toward Him, no matter what our situation is. If we have been away from him for years, as Gordie had, or if we just want to grow closer and be more committed to our relationship with God, He welcomes us and angels sing with joy. He wants us to come. He will respond to our desire for Him. Guaranteed.

I hope these thoughts help you to focus your attention and energies as you begin a new year. May your year be filled with joyful anticipation of all that God will do in our lives in the days ahead!

Blessings!

Bev

< Back To Newsletter Home