I really have to laugh and smile when I think about Blessing Number 4. This has to be one of my most unique acquaintances, but also one of the most solid friendships I've ever made. One day my family and some other relatives were in Grapevine Mills Mall shopping. When we go there, we are usually going to the JCPenney's Outlet and we are in and out. Because we were with family we decided to go to other stores. In the process my brother got disconnected from the rest of us, and we simply had to wait it out until he got to the entrance we came in. Well a young man sat down beside me a simply started talking. Before long I knew that he was sharing the Gospel with me! Since I had been on the other side of that conversation, though I didn't know what his personal beliefs were, I cut in and told him right away I was in Bible college. Well as you can imagine that took the conversation to a whole new level! We had an instantaneous theological discussion right there in the mall. He handed me his card with his artwork on it. At first, because I didn't fully understand the symbolism behind his work I didn't know what to think. For a few days I hesitated writing, but after reflecting on the conversation, I knew I had to email him. And boy am I glad I did. John was living in New Orleans working with Youth With A Mission (YWAM) as missionary. We had many more deep conversations, and I was soon to learn the thoughts behind his art. John has a very eccentric personality, and thus his art has a meaning all it's own. Once I got to know his heart, and the honesty of his highs and lows in his spiritually I felt I had so much I could learn from him. Though we have many of the same thoughts, John has a very unique way of looking at things, and stretches my points of view, makes me dig deep, and to think! John met me during a dark time in life (my parents divorce and grandparents deaths), and he stuck through the dark times and the good times! Many weeks we talked nearly everyday, and when we go weeks at a time talking, we pick up right where we left off, and just fill each other in on the details of our lives that have occurred in between conversations. John also taught me something vary valuable in the early days of our friendship, how to receive a blessing. He has done many things that God has used to take that form of pride out of my life! Humility I learned is not the same as humiliation! Gifts from God aren't to make us feel humiliation, they are to bring us to humility and thanksgiving! Often John and I discuss things such as authenticity in our lives, the lives of others, the condition of the overall church, the moments of emptiness where God seems distant, etc. Both of us having similar experiences but various thoughts on them. We find comfort in this scripture
""As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts." Isaiah 55:9 We are thankful God is in control, for our minds often deceive us into God's promises are delayed or not for us! But as Paul writes,
"Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely." -1 Corinthian 13:12 (This from the New Living Translation, I never use this version, but it expounds my thoughts in way I know John will relate, and that I am trying convey here). Thanks for being a lifeline John! This is symbolic art was drawn by John, my favorite. Notice the authentic believers taking up their cross and taking a rugged, lonely, steep path!
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