Easter Sunday,
April 4, 2021
God is Not Done with You
If you are still breathing, God is not done with
you! That idea has blessed me my entire life. In my current struggle with
grief, I hear God saying to me once again, “I am not finished with you!”
When I failed as a young man, the Inner Voice said,
“Walter, I am not done with you. Stop feeling sorry for yourself. Get up and I
will help you take the next step on this journey I have planned for you.” Those
words gave me the courage to believe that the Living God would not give up on
me until the final curtain is drawn.
Whatever your age or situation, I dare
you to believe that God is not done with you! Run from self-pity and
self-despising. Laugh at your troubles and see in the midst of life’s storms
that your heavenly Father is still working on you! Clear the runway and give
the God who loves you a chance to make you what he wants you to be! Keep on
yielding to the Potter who is able to shape you into the beautiful person he
wants you to be! He can use your pain and heartache to make you a better
person.
Right now you
may be miserable, disillusioned, depressed, angry or ready to give up. I have
been there. All those feelings have been mine. But as I struggled with life’s
hard issues, I became conscious that God was still working on me.
That became a profound insight: God is not done with
me. That I am still alive is God’s will. In all my circumstances, God is using
my problems to sand off my rough edges. I am like clay in the hands of a
potter. I am a miserable, broken pot but he has not thrown me away in disgust. So,
if God had hope for me, I can have some hope for myself. That small hope grows
as I feel his hands shaping me.
As our boys grew up, the pressures of
parenting and pastoral ministry created more stress than I could handle. Flat
on my back in a hospital, diagnosed with a bleeding ulcer and 45 years old, I
was one miserable human being. I was a wreck. One minute I was scared I was
going to die; the next minute I wanted to die. My life was over. I was a
failure as a father and as a pastor.
Then I felt his hands upon me; I began to believe
God was molding me into a vessel he could use. One more time my sense of
unworthiness was overcome by the reality that God was still working on me. To
my miserable, broken spirit God whispered, “I am not done with you.” As I
slowly regained my health, I found new confidence in my gifts for ministry.
Then I hit the wall again. After
serving several churches effectively, I failed to build the support I needed in
my next appointment. Conflict with key leaders of the church led to my being
reassigned to another church after only two years. This time, more than ever
before, I struggled with self-despising, depression and self-pity but the Lord
rescued me again. Despite my mistakes and poor judgment, God had mercy on me. Joy
in ministry returned. Once again, I was aware that God was not done with me!
At age 70 the mandatory retirement age rule
of the United Methodist Church made it necessary for me to retire. I was a
basket case. My life was over. Miserable spiritually, I was also a wreck
physically, so crippled in both knees that I could hardly walk. My orthopedic
surgeon and dear friend Dr. Jim Whatley replaced both my knees. But before I
could leave the hospital, blood clots developed and the good doctor said after
several panic-stricken hours, “We almost lost you.” But God was kind; He helped
Doctor Whatley save me.
A funny thing – a God thing really –
happened before I was discharged from the hospital. My friend Lester Spencer,
pastor of Saint James United Methodist Church in Montgomery, came to see me. In
the hospital where two days before I had almost died from blood clots, Lester
invited me to come on staff at Saint James. I laughed at his proposal but told
him that if I could find a way to walk again, I would join his team and I did.
God’s kindness afforded me 15 years of
ministry with the Saint James church family. Deep, abiding friendships with
many strong disciples of Christ developed. I had the honor of preaching the
good news of Jesus every Sunday. Dean and I grew spiritually while sharing the
joy of ministry in our mature years. We saw people come to new life in Christ
as we led Bible study groups in our home. I shared the sorrow of those whose
loved ones had run ahead of us to the Father’s House. I baptized many babies
and others seeking peace with God. I tied the matrimonial knot tight for many
couples.
Along the way my strength has declined as
expected in the aging process. Walking, which now requires a cane, is
difficult. I think about death now much more than when I
was young, especially since my wife died. At age 89 I realize I am around third
base and will soon slide across home plate. I don’t dread dying. I am not
afraid to die. Indeed, I am excited about it because I expect to find Dean
waiting for me at the gate! I believe with Paul that when I die, I will be
“with Christ” and that “to die is gain.”
Pondering
my death is not depressing. The fact that I am still alive reminds me that God
is not done with me. That excites me. I know that God wants to make me more
like Christ. And since that work is not done yet, I need to surrender more
fully, daily, to his transforming power.
To experience God’s life-changing power,
his servants must make daily surrender a habit. God does not force his way into
our lives. He waits for us to say, “Jesus, I want you to make me what you want
me to be.” No matter what problems you have now, what mountains you are trying
to climb, as long as you have breath, God is not done with you! He waits for
you to become clay in his hands.
Dear reader, I covert for you, until your
last breath, the joyous awareness that God is not done with you! While life
lasts, let Him have His way with you! Get up! Get in the game! Play with
enthusiasm till the final whistle blows! Rejoice that your Maker is still at
work shaping you into the person He wants you to be! + + +