Through The Prism Of Faith They Are Becoming Who They Are Worshipping!

TheDiscipleMD

As I surveyed the room where we were gathered for the dinner celebration of my wife’s birthday, I couldn’t help but notice that I was the only one in the room with the spouse of my youth. I also couldn’t help but notice that despite the tragedy that had befallen upon the family members gathered there, we opened the night of festivity with a prayer of thanksgiving to God for the blessings of this life. All in attendance had a deep abiding faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ and that he died so that we might live again. The faith of those present was not unusual, but their combined stories were.

My wife sat on my right hand as the birthday guest of honor. We have been married for 35 years at the time. Across the Dinner Table from me to my right sat my Father. Now advanced in age, he lost my mother to death over ten years before, and ten years later suddenly lost his second wife to a heart attack. To his left sat my sister, who in her mid- fifties lost her husband to an automobile accident. Sitting on my left was my sister-in-law whose husband, my older bother, died of pancreatic cancer at the age of fifty-nine. To her right sat my new brother-in-law who, in his fifties, lost his first wife to illness. He had recently married my younger sister, who was sitting directly across from me at the table. Her husband was taken ill a few years ago and suddenly and inexplicably died before he reached his 54th birthday.

It was clear to me that evening, as I surveyed those in attendance, and knowing of their lifelong committment to God, that they are living through the prism of faith. There was no bitterness, no sad faces, no lamentation for their loss, although their loss is great. No, there seemed to be peace and serenity in their faces. A peace that comes to those who believe! A peace promised by the Savior when he said, “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” (John 14:27)

Their faith was best exemplified by a conversation I had with my younger sister shortly after her husband died. This mother of four told me how painful it was to go forward after losing him. She told me that for a long time she could barely get out of bed. Everything became a chore, even going to church. In fact she said, “I hate going to church because it reminds me of everything that I have lost. I only go for one reason.” In that moment I thought to myself, “What is it that keeps her going? Is it to be an example to her children? Is it a habit? What?” Then she said a most profound and simple thing. She said, “I go because I have a testimony of the divinity of Jesus Christ!” “Of course!” I said to myself. “Of course!”

Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, “That which dominates our imaginations and our thoughts will determine our lives, and our character…What we are worshipping we are becoming.”

Yes, as I looked about the room that night, it was clear that the attributes of Christ were manifest in their faces and that through their extremities they had stayed focused on worshipping the Savior and by so doing they are becoming like Him. Emerson was right. What we are worshipping we are becoming. Is there any goal more worthy than becoming like the Savior of the world!

 

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