LEAP FOR LIFE
“Is it cheating if I pray to God now after so many years away, ignoring Him?” My precious friend had lived her life in pursuit of men’s love and theater’s success, sporadically but never permanently achieving both, and usually feeling more battered and confused than satisfied by it.
Now in her early seventies, life has slowed down. Her flings with the New Age seductions have fizzled, as the ever-expensive promises one by one proved hollow. Her children are grown with independent lives, and theater acting at this point seems pointless. She reads to mental-illness patients, take long walks with her dog, and feels generally settled in her village and the quieter pace of this age.
But something is stirring in her; the chill of autumn winds and the rustle of falling leaves fail to overpower that still, small Voice. Though no one around her appears interested in questions about life after death – though the tone everywhere seems haughty and dismissive of our Creator – from deep within her soul, childhood Bible stories and a longing for restoration and truth has awakened.
Could it be? Could life and joy really pulse through her body now? No longer suppressing the questions and their hopes, the voice of her yearning is clearer and more focused every day. Courage to defy the sleepy status quo is gaining momentum inside. Any day now, she’ll leap – from death to life, – from the mocking majority to the cheers in heaven. And He is ready to catch her.
“And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand.” ~ John 10:28-29
“Rejoice in that day and leap for joy!
For indeed your reward is great in heaven…” ~ Luke 6:23
“I say to you that likewise there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety- nine just persons who need no repentance.” ~ Luke 15:7
So no, dear friend, it is not cheating to pray to Him now. It is beautiful. It is why He died for you – so you could come Home. He longs for you more than a bereaved mother for her missing child. Before you even think your prayer, He knows what’s on your heart. But He still invites you to tell Him, because He loves to listen, and just like between you and me but infinitely sweeter, He is devotedly deepening your dialogue.
“O my dove, in the clefts of the rock,
In the secret places of the cliff,
Let me see your face,
Let me hear your voice;
For your voice is sweet,
And your face is lovely.”
~ Song of Solomon 2:14
“For you shall go out with joy,
And be led out with peace;
The mountains and the hills
Shall break forth into singing before you,
And all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.”
~ Isaiah 55:12
(written with her permission)
