Sweeter As The
Years Go By
“Sweeter as the years go by.”
Theresa my wife of 14 years, and I were listening to some Gaither music. Her
question out of the blue sent me to resonance school: “Ray, is that true
of you? Are the years getting sweeter
with Jesus as we are getting older?”
I felt pricked to
the core because of my inner response, “H - - -
no, I don’t feel the years are getting sweeter. Harder? Yes!”
Wow! This response from a guy
who has walked intimately (I thought) with Jesus for 68 years; who has been on
staff of Campus Crusade; who for most of
those 68 years has read his Bible and prayed daily; who had been on the board
of elders of a 4000 member Presbyterian church.
Yes. But what did all of this
spiritual activity mean? Was I a fake -
a fraud – a hypocrite? I don’t think so.
I really wanted to be a godly man and spread
that Gospel of Christ. The words “hell no” were not typical vocabulary words of mine…used mostly
in the counseling office when I thought
the client wasn’t being honest him himself. A sort of “prime the pump”
experience, giving him a safe place to be honest with his buried anger.
The
words “hell no,” are often a verbal expression or ;anger. If so, then who am I so mad at? Oh no. Is the counselor who has written a
book on anger, have some repressed anger himself? I began some relational
archeological digging. Using as my guide “the one you love the most can hurt
you the worst, and at whom you can be the most angry.”
The
one at whom we can be the most angry is
our spouse; possibly even one of our own children; a boss at work or
leader in church….or…God?
“God.”
You say. “After all God has done for me? How can I be angry at Him? Besides
giving
Jesus to die for
me; to give me eternal life with Him; who empowers me to live above my
circumstances on a daily basis., the Source of my courage to speak even when
the stuttering is at times debilitating.
You’ve got to be kidding. God – the source of my hope for the future.
while living with the unpleasant disease called Parkinson’s?
Our next blog will demonstrate how I was
angry at God and didn’t even realize it.
4 comments:
God bless Theresa for asking the kind of question that only a sweetheart can ask.
Thank you, Ray, for being honest in your journey with God. Sometimes we come short of our expectations of ourselves but isn't it comforting to know that God isn't surprised or repulsed by our honesty.
Will be looking forward to more.
Blessings, Bro.
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Sweeter? As of earlier this morning (Friday October 10, 2014), Ray no longer has any questions remaining to be asked. Our dear brother Ray graduated on into the realms of eternity and no longer is troubled by the unanswered questions of these past years.
God Bless You, Ray Burwick for teaching us "Gain Through Loss."
Your friend for eternity,
Gary Cottle (cowsbell)
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