An 82-Year-Old Baby

"I need to go to my son and apologize for deserting my family" were the words of an 82-year-old man but a two-minute-old Christian two weeks ago, whom I will call Ernie.  He dried his eyes after praying to receive Christ and with an urgency of a man who had left his wallet on the sidewalk, he bolted from the room and asked me if I would go with him to find his son, giving moral support to his apology.

Ernie was a very lean, trim, fit 82-year-old that had a surprising steadiness of hand, vision and thought even after cratering two fortunes, living on the edge, paying for sex, sometimes two at a time as an 80-year-old delinquent, a phenomenon never experienced to the degree we see it today in our country.

We found his 50-year-old Christian son, Ben, who had forgiven his father, even rescued his father from the tenement and decadent life he was living with great generosity, but even to the casual observer had a belly full of pain from the rejection and emotional scars of living with the abandonment pain so many men and women struggle with today.  Ernie, grabbing Ben (who was about twice his size) by the shoulders, lifted him from the chair and said "Son, forgive me for abandoning you and the family when you were only twelve, and all my abusive behavior.  I’ve just accepted Jesus and I am truly sorry for what I’ve done." 

If it were not enough to rock my soul watching father and son reconcile now as brothers in the Lord, the man sitting next to Ben, his friend, George, who had grown up with him and whose father was a contemporary of Ernie and also 80 years of age, blurted out that his father had also rejected the family and even failed to show up at a family reunion, George’s most recent attempt to reconcile.  I asked Ernie why George’s father didn’t show up and Ernie said "Simple – guilt. The guilt kept him away."

George had a sudden look of understanding on his face, as if to say "We should have gone to him." George is a man who takes seriously the "go" in the Great Commission where the Lord said "Go therefore and make disciples."  Making disciples, reaching out to people is not a matter of staying or waiting or responding, it’s taking the initiative and going. 

So I asked Ernie how well he knew George’s father.  He said, "Well, we’re contemporaries.  We all grew up together here in the same town." That’s when I asked him the question that seemed to stun all of us – a question that was clearly from the Lord as only the Lord can ask us things beyond our capacity. "Ernie, could you go to George’s father, Fred, and tell him what happened to you today and see if he would be interested in knowing more about Jesus?" Ernie quickly responded, "Yes, I’ll go immediately!" What a shocking moment.  Ernie, after eight decades of sin, sitting there with the peace of Jesus on his face and a depth of peace that permeated every man in the room, and his son, Ben, sitting there with a look of joy. Yet I sensed a deep hesitancy in Ben’s heart to trust his father again – perhaps even a fear of leaving a spot to which he has been so accustomed for so many years.  Then there was George, with an enormous hope on his face, that his father for whom he had prayed for so many years could, perhaps, be reached now by a peer, an 82-year-old who had left death and joined life.

Do you have abandonment pain?  Many of us do.  If two or three of us could gather together and pray for each other and those left on earth who have perpetrated this pain upon our hearts, maybe God would, as He has done with the men described above, build a team, a ministry team, encouraging and praying for one another and reaching those without Christ before they have to give an account of their lives.  Truly it is the Lord’s desire that none be lost. (II Peter 3:9) But also, Jesus, the One whom Isaiah said would come, died not just for our iniquities but He died and suffered for our sorrows. (Isaiah 53: 4)

Would you consider the following in your life today?

1. Forgiving those who have abandoned you.
2. Encouraging one another to share and to minister to one another’s sorrows caused by abandonment pain.
3. Go to those as a team who have left their responsibilities as father, mother, husband, wife, sister, brother, son, daughter or friend, with the peace and forgiveness of the Savior Jesus that they could see that "He" is the One they are looking for.

Because He lives,

Phil

Note from Susy: Thank you so much for your prayers for DNA and especially for Phil with his travel this month and for my effort to support him from the office along with Tonya and Anna. So far in October Phil has spoken 34 times at outreach meetings, retreats and conferences, and churches in 14 cities in 11 states. During that time 2137 people heard the Gospel with 597 praying to receive Christ at the outreach meetings, and 1319 have committed to disciple one person this next year. 

Please be in prayer for two outreach meetings this week.  Tomorrow is the first Maplewood Mayor’s Prayer Breakfast, near St. Paul, Minnesota.  It is being spearheaded by a faithful CBMCer, Russ Barrett.  Then Friday is the New Hope Leadership Prayer Breakfast, near Minneapolis. Please ask the Lord that not one man or woman would leave these meetings without surrendering to the Lord.

We praise God for what He is doing.  We are powerless without your prayers, His guidance, His intervention and His Spirit doing the work through us.  We will be forever thankful for your love, support and prayers. I’m sure, if he could, the 82-year-old man mentioned above would like to thank each of you for your prayers also.

In His gracious care,

Susy