When You Can Walk on Water, Take the Boat - Webs

“Well, your business must have been very busy because
I haven't heard from you in ages. Where were you
during the past few years, Gideon? I really could have used
some help. Somehow I felt abandoned, as good as betrayed,
by you and even by God. Remember, we met Him in the Big
City—or did we? Was it all nonsense... an illusion? My tired
mind playing cruel jokes on me?”
“No, not nonsense at all. Far from it. We were with you
all the time. <strong>You</strong> were so blinded by what appeared to be happening
to you, so consumed in self-pity that you weren’t even
aware of our presence.”
I wanted to scream in anger, but managed to restrain
myself. “Gideon, I’ve been and still am going through a minefield
of confusion and suffering. Lost my homes, lands, father,
company and most of my dignity and self-confidence. My wife
was diagnosed with cancer. Her parents are also being treated
for cancer. There’s no medical insurance—hardly any money.
I mean, how much can one person take? <strong>You</strong> don’t know what
it’s like... you probably don’t even care.”
He interrupted me, “Yes, I know about all of that. But
you gained strength, humility, wisdom and much more. Jim
Elliot, a martyr, once said, ‘He is no fool who gives what he
cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.’ The things that are
important are still with you, even more so today. <strong>You</strong>r dignity
and self-confidence are still with you, but most of all you’re
regaining your sense of purpose.”
“Sense of purpose about what?”
“About what you came here to do.”
“What I came here to do? Beats me. I have no idea
what I came here to do, except, perhaps, to live and work and
struggle until I die.”
98