Full Reversal, Part 4

This vulnerable man I write of was, obviously, not always this way. Quite the contrary, Dad was on the other end of the spectrum when I was growing up and even into my college years.

We were raised in an Epsicopal household. That is, my mother took us to church on Sundays. We also would have an advent wreath that we would gather around at Christmastime. But that was about it. I remember seeing my father in worship when I was little, but after we moved a couple of times, the memories of my father being in a church were almost non-existent. Also never brought up with Dad were conversations dealing with Jesus, God or faith. My father’s spirit was so lost that he got up right after I had been confirmed, choosing to leave the sanctuary before the rest of the service concluded. My father viewed most people who went to church as “pagan.”

But then Mom died of lung cancer in the spring of 1979. It was a crushing blow to our family, and it nearly killed my then 54-year-old father. He shook his fists in anger at God and swore he’d show Him a thing or two. Well, guess who won that smackdown?

Slightly more than a year after Mom died, Dad met Sally, a divorcee who was devout in her faith in Jesus and active in her Southern Baptist congregation in Memphis. It was through her example of strong faith that God opened my father’s eyes. I recently told Sally that, with God’s help, she had saved Dad, just as if she had pulled him from a burning house or a raging sea. “Really?” she said. “Oh yes,” I told her. He would’ve been dead a long time ago, consumed by all the bitterness and anger he had inside.

I still remember Dad calling me at my first job out of college to say he had started going to church and truly believed in Jesus’ life, ministry, resurrection and promise. I pulled the phone away from my ear, looked at it and thought, “OK, where is my father and what have you done with him?”

To think that Dad could come to believe, truly believe, in God, Jesus and the promise of salvation is, well, humbling. As Jesus told the no-longer-possessed man, “Return home and tell how much God has done for you.” As my father joyfully says today, God did much for Dad, and his spirit was transformed through God’s grace.

As my family enters this new phase with Dad, all of us pray that God’s grace will see us through. I know many people are praying for him, and all of us are grateful for that. But praying is as much for the person asking for God’s help as it is for whom the help is sought. Be mindful that God truly does answer prayers, but the outcome is not always the answer we think it should be. Whenever I pray, I always ask, finally, that whatever the outcome, please help me find the strength to deal with the final result.