The Story of Tommy

The Atheist Theology Student Who Was Found by God

– Author Unknown

John Powell, a professor at Loyola University in Chicago, writes about a student in his Theology of Faith class named Tommy:

Some twelve years ago, I stood watching my university students file into the classroom for our first session in the Theology of Faith. That was the first day I first saw Tommy. My eyes and my mind both blinked. He was combing his long flaxen hair, which hung six inches below his shoulders.

It was the first time I had ever seen a boy with hair that long. I guess it was just coming into fashion then. I know in my mind that it isn’t what’s on your head, but what’s in it that counts; but on that day I was unprepared and my emotions flipped.

I immediately filed Tommy under “S” for strange … very strange. Tommy turned out to be the “atheist in residence” in my Theology of Faith course. He constantly objected to, smirked at, or whined about the possibility of an unconditionally loving Father-God. We lived with each other in relative peace for one semester, although I admit he was for me at times a serious pain in the back pew.

When he came up at the end of the course to turn in his final exam, he asked in a slightly cynical tone: “Do you think I’ll ever find God?”

I decided instantly on a little shock therapy. “No!” I said very emphatically.

“Oh,” he responded, “I thought that was the product you were pushing.”

I let him get five steps from the classroom door and then called out: “Tommy! I don’t think you’ll ever find him, but I am absolutely certain that He will find you!” He shrugged a little and left my class and my life.

I felt slightly disappointed at the thought that he had missed my clever line: “He will find you!” At least I thought it was clever. Later I heard that Tommy had graduated and I was duly grateful.

Then a sad report, I heard that Tommy had terminal cancer. Before I could search him out, he came to see me. When he walked into my office, his body was very badly wasted, and the long hair had all fallen out as a result of chemotherapy. But his eyes were bright and his voice was firm, for the first time, I believe. “Tommy, I’ve thought about you so often. I hear you are sick!” I blurted out.

“Oh, yes, very sick. I have cancer in both lungs. It’s a matter of weeks.”

“Can you talk about it, Tom?”

“Sure, what would you like to know?”

“What’s it like to be only twenty-four and dying?”

“Well, it could be worse.”

“Like what?”

“Well, like being fifty and having no values or ideals, like being fifty and thinking that booze, seducing women, and making money are the real ‘biggies’ in life.”

I began to look through my mental file cabinet under “S” where I had filed Tommy as strange. (It seems as though everybody I try to reject by classification God sends back into my life to educate me.)

To continue tomorrow…

Meditation: And I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none. – Ezekiel 22:30

You will succeed in Jesus Name!

The Miracle of a Song

Her parents and doctors were ready to give up, but her brother wanted to sing a song…

Like any good mother, when Kate found out that another baby was on the way, she did what she could to help her three-year-old son, Victor, prepare for a new sibling.

They found out that the new baby was going to be a girl, and day after day, night after night, Victor sang to his little sister in Mommy’s tummy. He was building a bond of love with his little sister before he even met her. The pregnancy progressed normally for Kate.

In time, the labour pains came. Soon it was every five minutes, every three, every minute. But serious complications arose during delivery and Kate found herself in hours of labour.

Would a C-section be required? Finally, after a long struggle, Victor’s little sister was born. But she was in a very serious condition.

She might not make it alive!

With a siren howling in the night, the ambulance rushed the infant to the neonatal intensive care unit at St. Mary’s Hospital, Knoxville, Tennessee.

The days inched by. The little girl got worse. The paediatric specialist regretfully had to tell the parents, “There is very little hope. Be prepared for the worst.”

Kate and her husband contacted a local cemetery about a burial plot. They had fixed up a special room in their home for the new baby, but now they found themselves having to plan for a funeral.

Victor, however, kept begging his parents to let him see his sister. “I want to sing to her,” he kept saying.

Week two in intensive care looked as if a funeral would come before the week was over. Victor kept nagging about singing to his sister, but kids are never allowed in the Intensive Care Unit.

Kate made up her mind, though. She would take Victor whether they liked it or not! If he didn’t see his sister right then, he may never see her alive.

She dressed him in an oversized scrub suit and marched him into ICU. He looked like a walking laundry basket, but the head nurse recognised him as a child and bellowed, “Get that kid our of here, now! NO children are allowed.”

The mother rose up strong in Kate, and the usually mild-mannered lady glared steel-eyed right into the head nurse’s face, her lips a firm line. “Victor is not leaving until he sings to his sister.”

The head nurse obliged Kate.

Karen towed Victor to his sister’s bedside. He gazed at the tiny infant losing the battle to live. After a moment, he began to sing. In the pure hearted voice of a three-year-old, Victor sang:

“You are my sunshine,

My only sunshine

You make me happy when skies are gray…”

Instantly the baby girl seemed to respond. Her pulse rate began to calm down and become steady. “Keep on singing Victor,” Kate encouraged with tears in her eyes.

Victor continued singing:

“You’ll never know, dear,

How much I love you.

Please don’t take my sunshine away.”

As Victor sang to his sister, the baby’s ragged, strained breathing became as smooth as a kitten’s purr.

“Keep on singing, sweetheart!” Kate cried.

“The other night, dear,

As I lay sleeping,

I dreamed I held you in my hands…”

Victor’s little sister began to relax and rest. A healing rest seemed to sweep over her.

“Keep on singing, Victor”

Tears had now conquered the face of the bossy head nurse.

Kate glowed.

“You are my sunshine

My only sunshine

You make me happy when skies are grey

You’ll never know, dear,

How much I love you.

Please don’t take my sunshine away…”

The next day, the little girl was well enough to go home!

It was a miracle, God used Victor.

Meditation: I will praise the name of God with a song, And will magnify Him with thanksgiving. – Psalm 69:30

You will succeed in Jesus Name!

God’s Embroidery

When I was a little boy, my mother used to embroider a great deal. I would sit at her knee and look up from the floor and ask what she was doing. She informed me that she was embroidering. I told her that it looked like a mess from where I was, the underside. I watched her work within the boundaries of the little round hoop that she held in her hand.

She would smile at me, look down and gently say, “My son, you go about your playing for a while, and when I am finished with my embroidering, I will put you on my knee and let you see it from my side.”

I would wonder why she was using some dark threads along with the bright ones and why they seemed so jumbled from my view.

A few minutes would pass and then I would hear Mother’s voice say, “Son, come and sit on my knee.”

This I did, only to be surprised and thrilled to see a beautiful flower or a sunset. I could not believe it, because from underneath it looked so messy.

Then Mother would say to me, “My son, from underneath it did look messy and jumbled, but you did not realize that there was a pre-drawn plan on the top. It was a design. I was only following it. Now look at it from my side and you will see what I was doing.”

Many times through the years I have looked up to my Heavenly Father and said, “Father, what are You doing?”

He has answered, “I am embroidering your life.”

I say, “But it looks like a mess to me. It seems so jumbled. The threads seem so dark. Why can’t they all be bright?”

The Father seems to tell me, “My child, you go about your business of doing My business, and one day I will bring you to Heaven and put you on My knee and you will see the plan from My side.”

— Author Unknown

Meditation: For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. – Jeremiah 29:11

You will succeed in Jesus Name!

How Do You Respond to Discouragement?

This is a story that teaches us some lessons about how to deal with discouragement at moments in our lives.

A man got dressed in the evening and set out on his way to God’s house. On his way to Church, the man fell and his clothes got dirty. He got up, brushed himself up and headed home.

At home, he changed his clothes and was again on his way to Church. Again, he fell at the same spot! He, again, got up, brushed off the dirt and headed home. At home, he once again changed his clothes and walked out heading to God’s house.

On his way, he met a man holding a lamp. He asked to know his identity and the man replied, “I saw you fall twice on your way, so I brought a lamp so I can light your way.”

The first man thanked him profusely and the two went on their way to the Church. Once at the Church, the first man asked the man with the lamp to come in, but he refused. He asked him a couple more times and, again, the answer was negative. The first man then asked him why he did not wish to come in and pray.

The man replied, “I am Satan.” The man was shocked at this reply.

Satan went on to explain,”I saw you on your way to the Church and it was I who made you fall. When you went home, cleaned yourself and went back on your way to the Church, God forgave all of your sins.

I made you fall a second time, and even that did not discourage you; rather, you went back on your way to Church. Because of that, God forgave all the sins of the people of your household.

I was afraid if I made you fall one more time, then God will forgive the sins of your nation, so I have to make sure you get to the Church safely.”

Do not put off the good you intended to do as you never know how much reward you might receive from the hardships you encounter while trying to achieve that good. Your righteousness can save your family and a whole nation.

– Author Unknown

Meditation: For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls. – Hebrews 12:3

You will succeed because Jesus loves You!

What’s the Point?

– Author Unknown

In January 2000, leaders in Charlotte, North Carolina, invited their favourite son, Billy Graham, to a luncheon in his honour. Billy initially hesitated to accept the invitation because of his struggles with Parkinson’s disease. But the Charlotte leaders said, ‘We don’t expect a major address. Just come and let us honour you.’ So Billy agreed.

After wonderful things were said about him, Dr Graham stepped to the rostrum, looked at the crowd, and said, “I’m reminded today of Albert Einstein, the great physicist who this month has been honoured by Time magazine as the Man of the Century.

Einstein was once travelling from Princeton on a train when the conductor came down the aisle, punching the tickets of every passenger. When he came to Einstein, Einstein reached in his vest pocket. He couldn’t find his ticket, so he reached in his trouser pockets. It wasn’t there, so he looked in his briefcase but couldn’t find it. Then he looked in the seat beside him. He still couldn’t find it.

The conductor said, ‘Dr. Einstein, I know who you are. We all know who you are. I’m sure you bought a ticket. Don’t worry about it.’

Einstein nodded appreciatively. The conductor then continued down the aisle punching tickets. As he was ready to move to the next car, he turned around and saw the great physicist down on his hands and knees looking under his seat for his ticket. The conductor rushed back and said, ‘Dr. Einstein, don’t worry, I know who you are. No problem. You don’t need a ticket. I’m sure you bought one.’

Einstein looked at him and said, ‘Young man, I too know who I am. What I don’t know is where I’m going.”

Having said that, Billy Graham continued: ‘See the suit I’m wearing? It’s a brand new suit. My children and my grandchildren are telling me I’ve gotten a little slovenly in my old age. I used to be a bit more fastidious. So I went out and bought a new suit for this luncheon and one more occasion. You know what that occasion is? This is the suit in which I’ll be buried, but when you hear I’m dead, I don’t want you to remember the suit I’m wearing. What I want you to remember is this: I not only know who I am. I also know where I’m going.”

“Life without God is like an unsharpened pencil – it has no point.”

Meditation: And if our hope in Christ is only for this life, we are more to be pitied than anyone in the world. – 1 Corinthians 15:19 (NLT)

You will succeed in Jesus Name!

Focus on the Most Important Part of You

Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.

– James 1:21

The soul is, perhaps, the most important part of humans. It is what scholars usually call ‘the real man,’ ‘the hidden man,’ or ‘the inner man.’

The body is essentially a cover for the soul. The soul is to the body, what the CPU is to a computer; it is the part of man that conditions behaviour, ideals, attitudes, performance, spirituality, etc. The physical demonstrations of these are only seen through the carriage of the body or other parts of it. That is why, after death, the body will decompose away, whereas the soul will move on to face divine judgement, which will land it either in heaven or the lake of fire; hence, the ageless questions,

“For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?”

(Matthew 16:26)

It is a popular saying that regaining the souls of men is the heartbeat of God. God so much craves for fellowship with our souls every time, every day. The primary assignment of Jesus on earth was to reconcile the souls of humans to God. Most church teachings are geared towards refining the souls of the faithful, so that they can be amenable for connection with God.

Recent breakthroughs in surgery have shown that human parts can be transplanted. But not the soul, it can neither be seen nor transferred. But it is what defines each individual.

Therefore, considering the transcending importance of the soul, we are charged in the scripture above to be receptive to the word of God because, more than anything else, it is able to save our souls from undesirable consequences.

You will succeed in Jesus Name!

The Sure Route to Self Development and Enhancement (Part 2)

So now, brethren, I commend you to God and to the word of His grace, which is able to… give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified

– Acts 20:32

In contrast to self-help books, the Bible is not just able to build you up in whatever area you need to develop – mentally, physically, emotionally, socially, financially, academically, relationships, etc – it is also able to get you qualified for life after death as well as offer you an inheritance among the saints of God. No other book around can afford you such massive reward.

The more you study your Bible, the more acquainted you become with the thoughts, perspectives, practices and will of God. And, let’s not deceive ourselves, there is no one alive who has a higher standard or better taste than God. He is the ultimate. Therefore, knowing and applying His principles will help you become godlier with each application. And godliness

“has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come” (1 Timothy 4:8, NIV).

The Bible is your guide to godliness, among other things. Ensure you read it every day and apply its wisdom in your daily activities.

You will succeed in Jesus Name!