Our trials will probably not be exact parallels of hers,
losing a mate in Papua New Guinea, but for sure, we will face similar challenges
to our faith in different packaging. We will lose someone or something we love, and it will
make us wonder how this can be God’s best for us. We will face hours, maybe days when staying
the course will seem impossible, and maybe not even something we want to do.
But Grace will encourage you as she shares her journey.
Grace brought the final challenge of the week to us as
writers, and I want to share a few thoughts from that message with you. First, the theme for the week was the Silver
Links in God’s Eternal Plan, and Grace asked us if our chain (of silver links)
measures up to the tasks of life.
Think links as resources that we turn to as we face the
roles we are called to play and the bumps and potholes we face on the road of
life. Who are the people who have the
greatest influence in our lives? Do they
move us toward God and hope, or away?
What do we have in our minds; what have we read, listened to or seen and
stored up? Do we have lots of Scripture,
encouraging words and events to remember that the Holy Spirit can bring back to
our minds to enable us to navigate those potholes or battles?
And if those links are weak, like the link of a necklace
compared to the links that connect a car to a tow truck, what are you going to do
about it? What relationships should
change? What do you need to work on reading more closely or memorizing, so that
it is available when you cannot think otherwise? We do have choices to make, choices no one
else can make for us.
Finally, Papua New Guinea forces foreign nationals to leave
at the age of 65, but Grace did not retire to hobbies, though she does have
them. She continues to steward the messages God has given her, touching lives
through the spoken and written word. I
believe God gave me the perfect roommate encouraging me and all of us to be
faithful to continue to speak and write, so that our last words are words that
glorify God and are useful to Him.,