Previous Challenge Entry (Level 2 – Intermediate)
Topic: Shrewdness (03/07/05)
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TITLE: Run! | Previous Challenge Entry
By Theresa Veach
03/11/05 -
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I was so blind. I didn’t know it then, but I was running for my life, my eternal life.
“Don’t listen to that narrow minded Christian,” he hissed into my mind. “She doesn’t know what she is talking about. She’s been brainwashed into thinking that some lunatic who lived two thousand is the Son of God. Can’t you see how foolish she is?"
She certainly did seem foolish. Why should I listen to her? Didn’t she know that Jesus was nothing more than a spiritual teacher, a great prophet, or maybe even a healer, but the Son of God? Really! Didn’t she know that everyone has their own personal beliefs about God and she should just keep her opinions to herself?
The hiss of his words had enticed me and my mind had been captured by his clever lies.
I was so blind. I didn’t know it then, but she wasn’t brainwashed. She was wise. In her wisdom she had been praying for me, praying I would be touched by something greater than anything my mind could grasp.
He hissed at me again, “And don’t fall for her sugary kindness. She is a fake who has been sheltered all her life. She is really so intolerant! She lives in a small fantasy world. She doesn’t understand there is a big world out there. What about all those other religions, all those other people who fully believe in their own gods? Are all of them wrong? How intolerant of her!”
The hiss of his words had gripped me and my heart had been captured in the warmth of words like tolerance and
acceptance.
I was still so blind. I didn’t know it then, but she had planned all along to ask me to pray too. She had even been clever enough to ask me to pray that Jesus would reveal His Truth to me.
I had no idea of the power, of the gentle shrewdness of her request. I had nothing to lose. I could pray to Jesus. I didn't have anything against Him personally. “Jesus please reveal Yourself to me.”
Simple. Straight to the point. Clever. Astute. Shrewd. She knew only prayer and the power of the Holy Spirit could save me.
My head started spinning. How could Jesus be a great teacher, prophet and healer and be a liar at the same time? I would either have to accept that Jesus is the only begotten Son of God or throw Him away completely. Could I dismiss Him as a fraud after all He had taught, after all the prophecies He had fulfilled, after all the healings He had done? No!
I could still hear the hisses whirling around in my mind. I started to run for my life.
My heart opened like never before. Can all roads lead to heaven if Jesus is who He says He is? Can all roads lead to heaven if Jesus stated that He is the only Way to the Kingdom of Heaven? No! Words like tolerance and acceptance no longer warmed me. They ran through my veins like ice, ice that tried to freeze my heart and harden it toward Truth.
I could still hear the hiss whirling around in my heart. I kept running for my life.
Oh her gentle and shrewd request! I prayed again and again and again, “Jesus reveal Yourself to me! Jesus reveal Yourself to me!”
The hissing stopped. I looked up. There He was, my Jesus running toward me. He was running toward me defying logic, defying words, defying all the lies. He kept running toward me until He could finally pull me into Him, safe from the clutches of eternal death. I fell limp in His arms. The hiss had almost destroyed me. The lies had almost killed me...forever.
Now I could see. I looked back at her, the woman I had once thought foolish, the woman I had once thought intolerant and narrow-minded now radiated wisdom. Now I could see a protective light all around her. She stood like a prized and protected lamb among all the wolves, wolves like me. Because of her simple and yet incredibly shrewd request to pray for Truth, my life—my eternal life—was saved. In the Truth name Jesus, I have found eternal rest. In the Truth named Jesus, I will never have to run from the hiss of death again.
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