At around 2:15pm on Friday, December 8, 2017, I was picking up a few items from a nearby super store before I picked up my wife up from work. The first thing I needed was a tube of this specialty toothpaste for my gums (Clean Mint flavor, of course). Coming out of that aisle, I ran into “Tony” as his nametag specified. Tony was a tall guy with short brown hair, a social personality, and breath that could kill a Chihuahua.
He wanted to enter me in a contest with his local remodeling company, and an hour consultation about our home remodeling needs. I wish I had enough guts to tell this guy I wasn't interested, but my nice personality hated disappointing people.
Tony walked with me as I went to get my second item. (My appointment was confirmed by his boss on our walk for the following week.) In the cleaning aisle, I grabbed a box of the generic mopping pads for our Swiffer mop. As I chatted, I told him about some of the things Bobbi and I had experienced in our home. As soon as I mentioned the five out of eight miscarriages we'd had in our Gahanna house, Tony spoke up.
Tony said that he and his wife had recently experienced their first miscarriage (early in the first trimester). Though Tony had warned his wife not to, she had excitedly announced to the entire family about her first pregnancy right before she had the miscarriage.
For about five minutes, I told Tony about my experience in my thirties, how I'd felt, what had worked, and how I coped with it all these years later. ( I had never forgotten my eight children in Heaven even now in my fifties. I didn't want too either.) I could feel tears at the edge of my eyes for this young man's pain that he was trying to bravely hide. I hoped I could keep the crying from happening. Maybe Tony noticed this. I understood his loss. I wanted to make it all better, but I knew from experience that he and his wife had to walk this road by themselves as they came to terms with this situation.
I really wanted to give this guy a hug, but was that a manly thing to do in the middle of this store? Before I could ask this question, he did. Two men connected by an unfortunate event hugged like eventually it would work out for him. Tony said when he came to work today, that he could never have imagined that someone would provide him with ray of hope in this dark part of his life.
Tony had a relaxing cruise scheduled for the two of them the following month that he hoped would move things in the right direction. At lunch, Tony planned on calling his wife with my story. As I left for the self check-out registers, I was smiling. It was going to take a bit of time for me to figure just out how I’d been used by God.
“Imperfect people are all God has ever
had to work with. This must be terribly frustrating to Him, but He deals with
it.” (Jeffrey R. Holland)
Our Heavenly
Father’s faithfulness in our life despite our imperfections always puts us in
the right place exactly at the time He needs us there. The Bible is full of individuals who were used by the Almighty despite
their failures. Here are four of the many stories of men who were used by God (and
what we can learn from them).Abraham: The father of the nation of Israel was far from perfect. Though Abraham had faith faith that God would give him a child, he was imperfect in keeping the faith. At one point, he and his wife, Sarah, would doubt God and try to fulfill the promise themselves by having a child through Sarah’s Egyptian slave, Hagar (Genesis 16:3-6). Despite this, God stayed faithful and gave them Isaac, who would then later on after many generations result into the nation of Israel.
Moses: Moses was a prince of Egypt, but he was also a coward and a murderer at times. After having killed an Egyptian (Exodus 2:12), he fled to Midian only to be called there by God in the form of a burning bush. Moses had the lack of confidence to speak publicly, but God gave him Aaron so that He would fulfill God's purposes by freeing the people of Israel by leading them to the promised land.
Peter: Once called Simon, Peter was one of Jesus' disciples who would later on become one of the apostles of the early church. Peter wasn't always bold, but he often acted before thinking. At one point as Jesus was being tried, the disciple denied his Master three times. He was later restored by Jesus back into ministry and would be filled with the Holy Spirit. He became an anointed apostle of the church who did mighty miracles and preached powerfully in public.
Samson: Of all the men that God would use, there was probably no one
more arrogant than Samson. The Almighty would give him supernatural strength. The
judge would later fall because of his lust towards Delilah (Judges 16:20-22). Ultimately
God would bring His purposes to pass through Samson.
“God gave you a gift of 86,400 seconds today. Have you used one to
say 'thank you?'” (William Arthur Ward)[i]
[i] Source used: “4 People in the Bible God
Used Despite Their Imperfections” by Patrick Mabilog
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