RED shoes and all!
- to destroy
- to pull down
- to shred in pieces
- to demolish
- to break down
Today, I witnessed a "wrecking" right in front of my very eyes. In fact it was just a couple feet from me.
Not the wrecking of a building,
but the wrecking of a man.
Wow! What a sight to see.
When I was a young teenager, I remember being with my Dad and watching a wrecking crew take down a huge building in downtown Boston. It started with a wrecking ball, and ultimately they brought in dynamite. The whole thing just collapsed, exactly the way they anticipated it would. The cleaning crew took weeks to get all the rubble out of there and clean up the property. Eventually, they built something entirely new in its place.
Sporting my RED shoes, I sat in the circle of my Bible 101 group and opened up the class with the same question I always do...
"Who wants to share what
God's been doing in their life this week?"
Several people responded with some very good testimonies. But then something unexpected happened...
My co-facilitator asked if he could share something. He recently bought a book about modern day martyrs for Christ. As he walked by his coffee table, where he had placed it, God spoke to him quite conversationally stating, "You really need to read that book."
My friend knows the voice of God. He was intrigued with The Holy Spirit's prompting and thereby decided to read it sooner than later. Yup... that's when it happened... the wrecking process began. With each story in the book, God tore apart his heart, more and more. God was messing him up!
As he attempted to tell us what God was doing, it just came out in bits in pieces... almost like a pile of rubble.
I recall something about Christian prisoners being put to the test and somehow finding the ability to love the prison guards with the love of God, regardless of their brutality. Another story was about a woman in Russia who was tortured and raped on her wedding day because she had shared the Gospel.
It was hard to take it all in. Our dear friend and teacher, who was telling the story, was completely broken. He was crying and sniffling and couldn't quite get the words out. He's never like that. And the Holy Spirit wasn't just moving in his heart, He was reaching out and grabbing ahold of all of our hearts as we listened and observed. I could feel the tears welling up in my eyes. God's presence was moving in.
The man continued to relay his experience with us. He was so moved by the testimonies of these modern day martyrs, He wondered out loud,
"How can I complain about anything?
My life is so easy in comparison to these saints!
Could I ever have a heart for Christ like these people?
Would I stand strong in my faith if I were ever confronted with such situations?"
Yup... God is wrecking him... right there in front of us all. And he didn't care in the least. It's a GOOD wrecking. God is challenging his perspective of things. He's seeing something differently... from God's vantage point. The Holy Spirit is churning his heart in a most masterful way.
I've been wrecked by God many times myself, so I can say this...
It is a glorious thing
to be wrecked by God.
Why? Because you realize that God is taking the time to supernaturally move on your heart. The Creator, Himself, has decided to make a few changes in you, for the better. He's molding you into something new. He's tearing down your way, your thinking, your perspective, and replacing it with His. And His... is always better! Isn't that what we want? To be more like Him?
"And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory,
are being transformed into His likeness with ever-increasing glory,
which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit."
(2 Corinthians 3:18)
And that's what I discovered while wearing RED shoes today!
Gail
