A few weeks ago a missionary, Phil Hunt, spoke at our church and he shared a wonderful message, titled, "Plea to Glorify God with your life". In it, he shared about an experience he had once in Zambia, where he was riding in a Jeep and the driver urged everyone to look at something that was on the road. At first, Phil couldn't make out what it was, but then he realized that it was a dung beetle, a creature that's quite common in that area. He marvelled at how it could spend all day rolling this little piece of dung, into a perfectly round ball. The application he made from this is how we can sometimes find ourselves doing things which are 'ok' or 'not bad' but which really don't count much for eternity. I also liked how he explained that this was what Paul meant when we he wrote in Phillipians 1:10 that as Christians we are to "approve things that are excellent". He said that this is not so about what is right and wrong for us as Christians to be doing, as what is 'better and best'.
One of the statements he made which really caught my attention was when he said, "Don't waste your dysfunctional family upbringing". By that he meant that if we have grown up in a family that could be considered dysfunctional (This would describe some aspects of my home life growing up), we could choose to become bitter about it. Phil's home life was very much a dysfunctional one, growing up. He shared with the congregation that once when he was a kid, his dad who had many problems, had held up a knife to Phil's throat.
Phil's point though, was that God uses these trials to refine us, if we permit him to. So a dysfunctional family while a very difficult thing, also holds many blessings in disguise, the most important one being that God can use us to conform us to the image of his dear son- Jesus.
Once heard a similar message from a pastor whose son had been killed in school shooting. This had been a copycat incident that occurred in Alberta, Canada (where I live) shortly after the Columbine shootings. Pastor Dale Lang shared about how the difficult people God brings into our lives are really instruments he can use to shape us, and so we should welcome their occurrence with joy- though this is impossible, in our own strength.
In Jesus,
John
