As I worked on the message for today, I ran across this anonymous poem that for many years has encouraged me.  I first read it in a book by Joni Tada, A Step Further.  Since then its words often helped me find purpose, hope and even inspiration in the difficulties of life.

When God wants to drill a man,

And thrill a man, and skill a man,

When God wants to mold a man

To play the noblest part;

When He yearns with all His heart

To build so great and bold a man

That all the world shall be amazed,

Then watch His methods, watch His ways!

How He ruthlessly perfects

Whom He royally elects!

How He hammers him and hurts him,

And with mighty blows converts him

Into shapes and forms of clay

Which only God can understand;

While man’s tortured heart is crying

And he lifts beseeching hands!

Yet God bends but never breaks

When man’s good He undertakes;

How He uses whom He chooses,

And with might power infuses him;

With every act induces him to try His splendor out

God knows what He’s about!

Noah lived through a flood that killed almost everyone he knew.  Abraham and Sarah left home and never had a home again.  Rebecca and Rachael left their prosperous and secure homes to live in dysfunctional nomadic families. Joseph was hated by this brothers and sold into slavery.  Moses lived as a foreigner among his people and barely escaped with his life after becoming a killer.  David lived years in exile because of his faithfulness to an insane king.  Jeremiah preached God’s word faithfully and died hated and exiled from those he served.  Hosea’s wife spurned his love and returned to prostitution.  Mary was a single mother alone in years of great suffering.  Jesus died for those who despised and rejected him.  And the list could go on. Yet, in every case, God knows what He’s about.  We can trust Him!

Your Pastor,

Dude Garrett

Want to talk to Pastor Dude?  Give him a call on his cell phone (701)261-0931.