Decisions
It’s quite often that we are confused about what kind of life that we should live; that God wants us to live for; that would be pleasing for God. Now, I think we should learn from Oceile Poage’s experience. Who’s that? We’ll see!
A few years ago, I don’t know exactly when, a woman named Oceile Poage died from cancer. Starting in March, Oceile felt a great pain her stomach which was incurable. After two or three weeks, she went to see the doctor and underwent a lot of check-up and she ended not knowing what the disease was. A few months later, it was at last been known, some kind of stomach cancer (I don’t know for exact how to say this in English)! And the prognosis was death! The probability of being alive? Only 10%! A doctor said that, from 50 patients who suffered from this disease, only two survived. If Oceile was lucky, she might live for another four months. Some doctors said that, they could do chemotherapy on her, but it would be very painful and it probably wouldn’t cure the cancer. Oceile then chose to undergo the therapy, despite the pain that she might experience. She lived for a few months, long enough to experience Christmas and New Year. A few weeks after New Year, her family and she went to Baltimore to visit her friend, a 99 year old woman. Oceile brought some food, cooked, and had a chat with the old woman. Oceile decided to do so as before her death, she wanted to make sure that the old lady had really known Jesus. This was Oceile’s last expression of love. After that, Oceile went home and a few hours after her arrival at home, she died. Guys, I think it should be clear for us, knowing God’s will in our life, doesn’t mean that we should have a predictable life in front of us, it’s about our attitude in living our life, day by day, step, by step, whether it is pleasing God or not. Oceile didn’t know when she would die, what she knew was that in her everyday, she should serve Gos and she succeeded in doing so.
I have been thinking that my life, is like a cluster of decisions and I am grateful that I’ve taken all of those decisions. Back then, when my friend first asked me to go to church with him, I didn’t know how my life would develop if I accepted or refused his offer. When I was going to Methodist Senior Highschool, I didn’t know if it would affect my life this much. Even I didn’t know what would happen to me when I chose to go to Yogya. Still then, I made those decisions… since then, to this limit I know, no matter how unclear my future is, no matter how shady it is, what God wants me to do today, I’ll do. It’s useless to spend hours, days, even months to predict what kind of future God wants you to have, but what we’re doing isn’t pleasing God. In short, it’s the today which matters first, the future comes next. The message is, if you’re uncertain about your future, then do your best for today, as there will be no future without today. That’s all! God bless ya…
-taken from The Road Best Travelled by Ray Pritchard-
March 9th, 2006 at 6:16 pm
have you ever taken the time to just stop thinking? just a question.