“God, If You’re Out There, You Gotta Help Me!”

That’s the most profound prayer I ever prayed. It’s not very professional sounding but I hadn’t had much practice when I prayed it! It was exactly 31 years ago today when I sat on the edge of my bed out on the ranch in the Texas Panhandle. I came home from a trip to Oklahoma City with a close friend. I dropped him off an hour from my house and headed home. I don’t know any other way to describe the 60 miles from there to home except to say that I was weeping (I don’t even use that word) uncontrollably. My marriage was over and I had about every problem that you could imagine. I got to my house, out there in the middle of nowhere, went in the bathroom and looked at myself in the mirror….and hated everything about me. I saw myself turning into something that I knew better than. And I went in my bedroom, sat on the end of my bed…..still weeping, with no hope….. and said, “God, if you’re out there….You’ve gotta help me!” 

I have a great family….always supportive. And, I’ve always had a lot of good friends, I mean really good friends, ones you could ‘count on’.…but I was in a place in my life where no one could really help me but the Lord. At the time I thought it was the worst time in my life….but looking back it turned out to be the best…..even though I didn’t know it at the time. 

I knew nothing about trusting God; I knew nothing about walking by faith but I was in such a messed up place in my life that, out of desperation, I, just kind of blindly, put my trust in the Lord. It was the right thing to do!

One of my problems was over with overnight; it was supernatural, miraculous, really!  ……the rest of my problems were not over with overnight! I’m grateful to the Lord for fixing that one thing….but I’m more grateful to Him for ‘not’ fixing all the others that way. I’m afraid if He would have….it would’ve been like it had been the previous ten years. I’d run to Him when I was in a jam in my life…and when that set of circumstances was over…I was back to ‘my own way’.…never having any kind of real relationship with the Lord.

He had no good reason to rescue me….but He did! It’s a longer story. I’ll tell the rest of it somewhere along the way but the most important thing is that…..whatever’s going on with you….He has the answer and He’ll help you now. 

Maybe all you can say is, “Help”! Turns out, that’s enough! He’ll hear….and He’ll help! That….I’m sure of!

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If you like this, you’ll surely like this one: 

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A “Disposable” Relationship

 

Virtual Reality

We only started hearing that term around ten years ago. Now we hear it fairly often. “Virtual Reality” is a term given for ‘an artificial environment experienced through sights and sounds generated by a computer that mimics an actual experience’. The technology has come a long way in a short time and is advancing at warp speed. You can, with the computers help, fly a plane or a helicopter without ever leaving the ground, or even take a visual trip through the human body. Pretty amazing stuff, huh?!

But as amazing as the technology is……when I hear the term, ‘virtual reality’, it makes me want to give my own definition. My definition is simply this: “Almost real”.It appears real. It feels real. It can cause the same emotions and reactions as the real thing……but it’s just not real!

We should be careful these days to make sure that the church is not just a church of “virtual reality”! Most everyone wants their church experience to be without problems, snags and negative happenings of any kind. That’d be great with me too……but it ain’t reality!! The truth of the matter is that there’s all kinds of problems in any church. As people…..we’re pretty flawed (sorry if that hurts your feelings!), and in our process of being ‘renewed’ we make all kinds of mistakes and blunders. And when we come together on Sunday, there’s a whole house full of messed up people. 

We could try to fake it (…and most do!!) and act like we don’t have a problem one,……but that would be “Virtual Reality”, almost real. Or…..we could see it, and live it out, as it really is. You can always look around the room (in church) and find somebody more ‘messed up’ than you. Although most of the time when I do that….I can’t seem to find anyone that fits the bill! But you know what?? It’s REALITY!! 

Next time you go to church (hopefully that’ll be soon) and look around and everything appears wonderful, meticulous with everything just ‘oozing’ perfection, “Heads up!!” …….you’re experiencing “Virtual Reality”. If, on the other hand, everyone is obviously far from perfect and both you and them have problems that look like they’re too big to overcome……

Congratulations!! You have found the “REAL THING’!!

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