By Becky Jungkuntz
Some weeks I go to church and enjoy the message, but it doesn’t feel immediately pertinent or applicable. But other weeks, it’s like God is talking directly to me. That’s how it felt on Sunday, Sept. 22. Pastor Scott was preaching on Psalm 126. The focus of the sermon was on suffering and loss and how God can use that in our lives to create an opportunity to witness – yes, witness. I’ve thought about suffering and loss quite a bit over the past few years, but I must say that seeing it as an opportunity to witness is not my first thought.
The sermon, however, reflected what my dad and I had experienced intensely over the past week. After discovering that not only did we have mold on our second floor and our kitchen, but we also had toxic mold in our basement, we had to make the heart wrenching decision in 24 hours to gut our basement. Perhaps in some cases that wouldn’t be a big deal, but in our case it meant disposing of my dad’s precious theological library of thousands of books that he had accumulated over 50 years of ministry. It’s not the same as the loss of a person, but for him it meant the loss not only of dear and familiar books but also of the tools that reflected his professional career.
Perhaps in some cases that wouldn’t be a big deal, but in our case it meant disposing of my dad’s precious theological library of thousands of books that he had accumulated over 50 years of ministry.
Can God bring good out of that type of sudden loss? Can it lead to others saying, “The Lord has done great things?!” I believe it has. My response to all of this was practical – whom do I need to call, what do we need to do next. My dad’s response was to see this as an opportunity to share God’s love. He took the time to get to know the young men who were sent by the mold remediation company to clean, pack, and haul away his books. At the end, he gave each one of the men a Bible saying that Jesus had a message for them in that book. Several days later one of the young men was back at our house. When my dad asked if he had started reading the Bible, he responded with a sparkle in his eye, “Yes!”
He took the time to get to know the young men who were sent by the mold remediation company to clean, pack, and haul away his books.
While I was busy thinking about the practical and somewhat overwhelming tasks that needed to be done, my dad lived out the sermon, using his loss to bring glory to God and share the love of Jesus which truly “restores our fortunes.” And I was encouraged that the Lord knows when we need to hear an apt word! Truly the Lord has done great things for us!
….my dad lived out the sermon, using his loss to bring glory to God and share the love of Jesus which truly “restores our fortunes.”
