After the Story - Choices Like Rivers - Episode 59
After the Story - Choices Like Rivers - Episode 59
This podcast discusses each chapter of Choices Like Rivers and each episode is posted directly after the book episode. This to Chapter 21 Section 1
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Every single time I read this chapter I tear up and my heart aches. This scenario is unimaginable. But both Donna and Molly Sue are obedient. They are hopeful.
Donna has a renewed hope that Molly Sue will bring a doctor back, and maybe this was God’s plan all along to rescue them. But as the day goes on, deep in her spirit she knows. God won’t allow her false hope. But yet, she is still obedient.
I dare say that many in this situation would not be obedient to God’s direction. But Donna had the depth of relationship with God, with Jesus that propelled her forward. She trusted him, truly trusted him.
The unselfish prayer that Donna prayed was so genuine. If God were not to bring Molly Sue back, then please give her a good Mommy. That had to be an excruciatingly hard prayer to pray. An extremely unselfish prayer to pray. But isn’t that a mother’s unselfish love?
The moment came and the intensity of the moment is accentuated when Donna’s chain grabs hold to keep her from walking further while Molly Sue walked on.
That was it. That was the end, and with it Donna had to have felt the most horrific broken heart. But, she didn’t call her back. She let her keep going.
In my mind this couldn’t have been good for her health. Whatever illness that she suffered from no longer had the joy of her life to keep it at bay. We can only assume she finally let her guard down and sank into the illness and into depression.
But I don’t believe so. Donna had a solid relationship with God. It had grown deeper and deeper every day. I believe she would have continued to trust him. Praying earnestly and believing for Molly Sue every day.
Disappointment will come to us all. Some small and some that are devastating. The question is, how will we respond? Will we continue to hope, often readjusting the scope of that hope, or will we deflate and sink into depression? We have a choice and that choice will direct the ultimate outcome.
That choice will frame our life into something stronger with deeper character, or into a weaker and more feeble state of mind. As hard as it is, if we determine to overcome disappointment with a firm resolve to move forward, give the outcome to God, and believe in a new direction, our lives will be fuller and stronger.
Each disappointment can be a building block, a stepping stone that will gird us up if we allow it.
James 1:2-4 (2) My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, (3) knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. (4) But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.
How many times have we prayed for patience but it didn’t seem to come? Patience is a muscle. For it to grow it must be exercised. It has often been jokingly said that if you pray for patience then you will get something to be patient for.
The only way to grow our patience is to exercise it during a trial. When our faith is tested it will grow our patience because we are not in control of the trial and we have no option but to wait it out, in essence being patient for it to end.
We are encouraged to let patience have its perfect work. Don’t beg God to stop or intervene in the trial therefore disrupting the working of our patience. It may stop the pain for a time, but another trial will come back around and we will need to let it play out.
Why is this so important? Because as it says in the scripture above, if we let it play out. If we let patience have its perfect work, then we will be a person perfect and complete, lacking nothing.
This, I believe, is referring to our character, our steadfastness, our faith, and so much more that creates who we are. This is not about lacking material possessions which God has already promised to provide for us.
Donna is faced with the greatest trial of her life. She was faithful in letting patience play out when she was captured. She has endured. God has built her character solid and stable. Maybe for just such a time as this.
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