Get on the Attack

As tragic and hurtful as the loss of your loved one is, take it as an occasion to build upon that life and fight back.  These words may sound difficult and counter-intuitive in this time of sorrow, but as we heal from the hurt and sorrow we are enduring, we must approach it in a positive vain to move forward in our life.

When I was a sophomore in high school, my best friend Ronnie died of cancer.  We only lived a few blocks apart.  He had been diagnosed when we were in the eighth grade.  We were great pals.  We had many laughs together. We memorized the presidents together for school.  

Ronnie fought a gallant fight.  He had even been taken to the Mayo Clinic for treatment.  In the end he was savaged by the malady and was reduced to a virtual skeletal appearance.

One of my visits to him in he local hospital hit me unusually strong.  When I went to home, I went to my bedroom and began to pray and sob uncontrollably.  Pouring out of my mouth were the words “heal Ronnie if its in Your will and show me if you want to be a doctor or a preacher.” My mother heard me and said, “come on in and wash your face and lets eat supper”.  I didn’t have anything else to pray anyway and that was the end of my prayer.

It was the first time I had ever offered a personal prayer.  I was motivated by anger and a knowledge of the brevity of life.  I wanted to do something to fight back.  At the time I didn’t know anything to do to follow up the prayer.  But God heard and answered the prayer two months later.

Ronnie died in March.  In the first week of May, a most unexplainable revival came to our church which God used to give me my answer.  It was a powerful week that spoke to me.   I began reading a bible and praying.  Thats when I began personal one on one witnessing.  Before the year was over, I preached my first sermon.  I was barely sixteen years of age.  I was filled with a fire that has never gone out.

Let me illustrate if I may.  Just in obtaining my ministerial education alone took a herculean effort.  I paid my own way through college.  After the first year of college in my home town, I transferred to Calvary University in Kansas City majoring in pastoral studies.  To pay for this education, I first worked for a hospital as an orderly five days a week from 2:30 pm till 11:00 pm.  I did this for a while.  Later I took a job with the Federal Reserve Bank working five days a week from 11:00 pm to 7:00 am.  Part of this time my first class began at 7:15 am.  I married between my Junior and Senior year and was able to reduce my working ours.  I worked at a Holiday Inn on weekends from 9:00 pm till 7:00 am. 

After completing my bachelors degree, I then went to Seminary and earned a Masters Degree while I pastored a church  forty-five miles from the school and drove back and forth every day with my wife working full time at a camera store. Finally I earned the Doctorate in Theology, also as a full time pastor.  It took five years to complete this but with God’s help I did it. Yet the original fire came and the drive to complete my education came from my best friend’s death and the ensuing revival at my church.

Now you might ask, would God take the life of a friend to speak to me?  Let me answer that by saying Jesus died for us to speak to us and give us eternal life.  Also what greater compliment to a friend (or loved one) that you love for him or her was so great tat you would dedicate your life to God and to God’s holy warfare.  John 10:10 (KJV) says, “The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.”

We are in a spiritual warfare.  It has been waged since the time of Adam and Eve.  If you have not yet done so, why not let this sorrowful and painful event in your life be the time that you unite your heart with God’s and go on the offensive against Satan and his forces.  Let the death of your loved one and their memory be the beginning of your opportunity to fight back and get on the attack.