“Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”
Philippians 1:6 (NIV)
We go through many different stages of our spiritual life journey, and while some people are steady and faithful, others have spiritual ups and downs. Then there are those people who totally abandon their faith during periods of their life.
I tend to dwell on my son, Jon’s stage of rejecting his faith, the state of mind he was living in, prior to his accident. He abandoned the faith of his youth, and was living as a proclaimed atheist at the time.
I knew I was becoming too focused on the negatives, but I started to find it difficult to see anything positive about him or his situation. It became like the Achille’s heel of my faith, the one place where my hope was the weakest.
As I was praying about this, asking God to help me believe and to see things and people through His eyes, I heard a speaker on a TV devotional program, mention that in the book of Genesis, God kept repeating that everything He created was good. He said it over and over, throughout that chapter. Everything God created was called good. That thought stayed with me, as if I heard it for the first time.
Yesterday, while I was looking for something, I accidentally came across a folder that was tucked away in my nightstand drawer. It was filled with letters, cards and poems, written by my two boys when they were younger, so I pulled it out and started reading the things they wrote. On the left side of the folder were Michael’s letters and cards to me, including the 23rd Psalm that he wrote, as a teenager, in an excellent first attempt at calligraphy.
On the right side of the folder were Jon’s letters and many poems he wrote. He showed an early interest in writing, and at 16, he wrote letters to friends and relatives, as well as writing many poems to me. My friend gave me back one of his letters to keep, since it was so nicely written.
Then I found a letter he wrote to his pastor about how he was surrendering his life to Jesus. The pastor also gave me back that letter to keep, since it was so special.
I forgot about it, and as I read the two page letter, it brought back memories of Jon’s early commitment of faith to the Lord, as a teenager. Then I spent time browsing through all the poems he wrote, which were saved in that folder. I was looking at a collection of memories, of the good work God began in him, kept in a folder for the past 27 years.
It was a needed reminder of how his heart was once open to God, and I’m sure I was meant to find those letters and poems to refresh my memory. It was the answer to my prayer, being able to see the good that God once began in his life. That journey was interrupted by choices he made, but I received a glimpse of what God can do, and I have renewed hope that He can finish the work He began in him.
It changed my perspective as I read the memories in that folder. Instead of focusing on the negative, I focus on the goodness that God began. My perspective needed to change more than I first realized. I forgot how dedicated Jon once was, but Jesus didn’t, and He wants to finish the good work He started in him.
He may be a 43 year old prodigal, but he is still Jon. Even though he lost his way, His good shepherd knows that he was once a part of his sheepfold. In reading those letters and poems, it felt as if Jesus was saying to me, “This is how I see Jon.” I know that Jesus wants to continue His good work in him, right where He left off.
Jesus is calling Jon back, and He is calling all of us back in some way, even if it’s a call back to a memory or a vision of hope and truth that we have somehow forgotten. He calls every prodigal back to repentance, but He also calls believers back to trusting in Him, and renewing our hope that He has more good to do in all of us.
God called everything that He made, “good”, and there is a reason for it. We can be confident that He is still working His good in our lives, as well as in our family and our children’s lives.
Lord, we believe you have plans to finish every good work that you began in us. Open our hearts and minds in recalling where you left off and help us to envision how good your completed work will be. Amen