Sunday, May 29, 2011

Swirled Thoughts and a Pure Heart

Thursday night, our Sunday School teacher who we've been filling in for -who is also one of our good friends- was in a terrible wreck. He stopped at a red light and was rear-ended with such force that his truck was shoved 100 yards down the road until it was stopped by a pole. The other drivers' car was stuck up under his truck. The truck bed was mangled and bent toward the sky. He had to be cut out with the Jaws of Life and then Bay flighted to a hospital in Tampa. Miraculously, the only injuries he sustained was a pretty bad concussion and a tiny 1/2 inch cut on his right wrist.

Friends that came to the hospital that night said that his conversation kept looping with the same 5 questions, over and over and over again. From what I understand, with any type of severe head trauma, this looping with short term memory loss is a common part of the healing process. Not only are thoughts swirled around, but the filter sometimes disappears from the mouth, too. Amazingly, some of his statements were,"Is everybody OK?, Did I hurt anybody? Who was in the car with me? I am not a drinker. Would you pray with me?" (or something to that effect). Our teacher had no filter! He only spoke what was in his heart, his spirit.

Jesus says in Luke 6:45, "A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of."

I would hope something like what he said would come out of my unfiltered mouth if I got a good conk on the head, but it probably wouldn't. I know what I've said sometimes when I've accidentally hit my head on the kitchen cabinet door, and it ain't purdy. Little reminders of my imperfections also remind me that it's not only MY job to clean my heart and keep it clean. It's God's job through the power of the Holy Spirit to convict me to repent and turn from my sin, IF I'm willing to listen.  Sometimes (not all the time) in the midst of a sticky situation, I will ask God to search my heart and reveal my motives so I can truly deal with the problem (usually me!) so he can show me how to walk out the solution without my selfishness in the way. This is hard to do and I'm still learning! It's also hard to walk it out once he's shown you your heart and you actually have to deal with it! But it can be done. It has to be done. In order to have a relationship with him at all, I have to humble myself before him, open my hands to receive his forgiveness and walk in the power of his grace, trusting that through him he will help me make things right again. I ask, he leads, I obey.

Psalm 51:10 Amp.
"Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right, persevering, and steadfast spirit within me."

Once again, Father, I ask that you search my heart and show me if there is anything there that would keep me from you.

If you have prayed this prayer with me in sincerity, chances are, the Lord revealed, rather quickly, something that was hindering your walk with him. This is your cue!

I'm happy to say that our buddy will make a full recovery and has drawn our friends at church closer than ever before as a family. Did I mention that he is the coach of the high school baseball team? He took his entire team with him on a missions trip last summer to the Dominican Republic. His ENTIRE team got saved on that trip along with many others! He is one of God's lights shining in the darkness of forbidden territory.

One of my girls said, "Wow! God must have something really special for him to do now, like be a pastor of a church or something!"
My hubby replied,"Or...be a baseball coach." :0)

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