Stories of real faith: People who have found new ways to reach for God's hand in the dark

By Helana Olivier

There is no dress rehearsal to prepare us for life. Sometimes it takes only one crisis to send our lives forever in a new direction. Will that one setback that crossed my path leave me embittered and bewildered? Will my faith be thrown permanently into reverse? And what about successes? Will unexpected breakthroughs change me into an arrogant, cocky being?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lux Verbi
• Release date: Jun 17, 2011
• ISBN: 9780796315533

Book preview

Introduction

Every person makes choices daily, and each of our choices has a consequence.

– Liesel Krause-Wiid

Think a little and marvel that God has given you the privilege of being able to choose.

– Johan Jacobs

Do the following statements sound familiar?

• I can’t believe it’s happening to me again!

• Now that’s Murphy’s Law.

• I’m always in the right place at the wrong time.

• Things just don’t want to work out for me. I can’t understand why!

• Life is playing tricks on me again.

Most of us sometimes wonder why particular things happen to us, or we feel that life is treating us unfairly. Sometimes a normally cheerful, lively, positive person feels as though he or she has to drag him or herself out of bed in the morning and cannot face a new day. They feel they have just enough energy for survival. They might previously have been able to transform apparently negative situations into positive ones, and it hadn’t been too difficult since nothing dramatic had ever disturbed the normal flow of their lives. Nothing had really upset their applecart yet. But then, one day, the whole street is covered in rotten apples. Before, their scales had more or less balanced. Now the weights have tilted to one side. And the thing they were weighing has fallen out the other side. They have totally lost control.

It is at such times that Christians sometimes want to ask God why He allowed this unpleasant thing to happen in their lives, since they were under the impression that they were living according to His will. Dear reader, sometimes it isn’t that God allowed it. By having made a wrong choice, we got ourselves into that unpleasant situation. Debbie (Bingham) Nicholson writes in her story as follows: Selfcentred choices come along, hard lessons and huge consequences to bear But she also writes that redemption is possible even if wrong choices were made initially.

Liesel Krause-Wiid writes as follows: And yes, we often choose wrongly, but the wonder of the almighty God we worship is that though we make wrong choices, God is still there for us and can use even our wrong choices to serve his purposes.

I invited 22 people from different sections of society to share with us the choices they made at a certain stage of their life. Although they represent a diversity of spheres, they all made one choice that has had a common factor, namely to hand over the control of their lives to Christ. We read in these surprisingly honest accounts how things aren’t always rosy on their Christian journey. A car accident can compel you to change direction. Sometimes we read that we have no control over certain situations and that we have to trust God for strength to survive each day. A background of wrong choices, such as prostitution, drug addiction and alcoholism, can be wonderfully turned around into a life of service to God. And sometimes things like cancer, an unloving mother or child abuse can be transformed through forgiveness into a life that is pleasing to God. Some people are so fortunate that all their life choices thus far have resulted in only good things. The honour is then given to God alone. So read for yourself how these contributors have recounted their experiences, each in their own words.

My sincere appreciation to each contributor for the time they invested in this project. My prayer is that each of you will be richly blessed in future for your participation. I believe with all my heart that you will touch heartstrings and draw people to reflect on their own lives.

Helana Olivier

1

Choose not to choose on your own

Liesel Krause-Wiid

The choice is always yours

Helana’s invitation to me to be part of a book dealing with choices made me stop and review my life and the choices I had made.

Every person makes choices daily, and each of our choices has a consequence. Indeed, the choices we make will largely determine the quality of the lives we live. In difficult situations I can choose, for example, whether to be a victim or a victor; choose to give up on life or choose to push on, by the grace of God. Even the food I choose to eat has an effect on my day and on my body: some foods and drinks leave you tired and listless, while healthier choices give you energy and vitality.

Eleanor Roosevelt said, One’s philosophy is not best expressed in words; it is expressed in the choices one makes … and the choices we make are ultimately our responsibility.

You and I cannot choose how we will die, but we can choose how we will live! It says in God’s Word that we are created in His image. This means, among other things, that we have the ability to choose. We are not puppets controlled by God or anyone else: God has given us the wonderful capability of being able to make decisions. So many things can be taken away from a person, but no one can deprive me of the decision as to how I will respond to my circumstances! That remains my choice. I can choose to take hold of opportunities I encounter on my life’s path, or I can simply choose to let them slip through my fingers.

What I choose to do or say brings about particular results in my life. As children of the Lord we can do no other than to know God in our decisions! He equips us to choose with insight. His Word says it is He who equips us and that true knowledge (wisdom) begins with the fear of the Lord. When I choose to trust God completely and entrust my life into his hands, I choose an exciting life journey full of surprises together with a Traveller Who is always there for me and carries me through every crisis!

The Bible is full of guidelines on how to make right choices. Of course it is no magic instruction book with crystal clear answers to questions such as whether I should marry John or Peter. But the Bible does give me general guidelines and principles and norms in the light of which I must make my decisions and according to which I can act. In addition, God’s Spirit gives me a deep peace when I act according to his will.

Many choices I have made in my life have sent my life in a specific direction, but the one choice that changed my life irrevocably was the choice I made in a hospital bed at 16 to go and study theology. But was it my choice, I wonder now, or was it God’s grace that drove me to get up after the horror accident that tied me to a hospital bed for three months? Yes, I definitely think we need God in order to choose right, to choose to remain in his will.

A car accident changes the course of my life!

I was sixteen years old. My friend Liesl and I went for a drive on the other side of our farm with the farm Jeep. As a farm girl I had been driving since junior school and knew all the dirt roads around our farm like the back of my hand. But that Saturday morning I misjudged a road that had been graded that morning, and rolled the vehicle on a bend. I don’t remember much of the accident, as I was unconscious for a long time. I just remember being woken by a scraping sound. A doctor was busy stitching up the gaping wound on my forehead.

When I regained consciousness, I found that I had broken my pelvis in two places, sustained a serious knee injury and had cuts across my head and face. As a result of all the injuries I would be bedridden for three months.

My young body was broken, my hair shaved off because of the head wounds, the long bed rest caused my muscles to waste away, I was tortured by bedsores, by skin came out in a rash as a result of poor circulation and medication and, as a teenage girl, I was disgusted by my own appearance.

Three months is a long time to be flat on your back. You are constantly struggling with your thoughts and mulling about the meaning of life. Mention was made that I would be left with a limp. Like everyone in a crisis I went though several phases in dealing with it. First there was the phase of denial, then rage, I even blamed God for allowing this misfortune to strike me! And then one reaches what psychologists call the bargaining phase. I asked God – no, pleaded with Him – that I should just be allowed to walk normally again; if He did that for me, I promised, I would go and study theology. Yes, it was a naïve and human promise, but a choice I made there in the hospital bed, and it set my life on a new course.

After what felt like an eternity, I was discharged from the hospital. For months I walked with a leg brace, and in the end I was able to walk normally again.

Did I choose right?

I was passionate about fulfilling my promise to God to study theology. I changed my choice of subjects at school, dropped Art and took Biblical Studies, but before I was to go to university, I secretly decided that this field of study was not intended for me or for a woman, and that I would rather study something else.

I carried the doubt in my heart for a few weeks, and minutes after I had mentioned it to a friend for the first time, I was involved in another car accident.

For the second time in less than two years, I found myself bleeding in the trauma unit. A doctor gave me the shocking news that I might have broken my neck. This second car accident reminded me of the choices and promises I had made after the first one. In those anxious moments in the trauma unit, I realised I would have to be faithful to my commitments. Ecclesiastes 5:4–5 emphasises that when we have promised God something, we should not delay in fulfilling it.

I was discharged from hospital days later with only a neck brace and some bone fractures – a few ribs, my nose and my sternum. My neck had turned out not to be broken as the doctors had suspected. I praise the Lord for that to this day!

When I walked into the Faculty of Theology at the University of Pretoria a few weeks later, I felt as though I had come home. A deep peace about the choice of my field of study came over me, and I just knew that this was where I had to be. My fellow students and professors inspired me and I thoroughly enjoyed the challenging course.

Of course there were challenges during the six years of study. Apart from the fact that it was a very long haul and that Greek and Hebrew were torture, there were also times when Church History, Dogmatics and the digging deeper into Theology robbed me of my spiritual spontaneity. I had to keep reminding myself that Theology was not a teaching but a lifestyle! When you learn, for example, how damaging it can be to quote Bible verses out of context, and that this can ruin someone’s life, you become very cautious about offering opinions. As a Theology student, you realise more and more each day how little you really know about God; you realise that He is more than you had imagined all your life; He is not a tame god or home idol you can control; our limited understanding cannot define the extent of His greatness. And sometimes that makes you wonder why you even try.

There is a lovely story that illustrates my desperation beautifully. It tells of St Augustine walking along the seashore and thinking deeply about the doctrine of the Trinity when he came across a little boy scooping up water from the sea and pouring it into a hole in the sand. What are you doing? St Augustine asked the boy. I’m pouring the sea into this hole! came the answer. St Augustine walked on, reflecting, Am I not attempting the same impossible task as that boy? Can I, with my limited understanding, encompass the depth, extent and infinity of God’s being in a definition?

During my studies I came to a point in my journey with God where I realised that I would never be able to understand or answer every theological conundrum and, after many struggles with God and myself, I realised that this was OK! We can’t understand everything about God – that is why He is God. I stopped struggling about questions around things like suffering and began to live in wonder at God. Jesus’ admonition to become like a child became a reality for me.

Confucius said, Real knowledge is to know the extent of one’s ignorance, and Benjamin Disraeli affirmed this when he said, To be conscious that you are ignorant of the facts is a great step to knowledge.

Another challenge in my growth as a theologian came shortly after I had completed my studies. A well-known television presenter, with whom I shared the story of my calling, reacted bluntly with the words, Oh, so your God breaks your bones when you don’t keep your promises to Him!

No, my being cried out, you didn’t hear me right! I had to learn that non-believers easily perceive our church language as cheap answers and that our task is, in the first instance, to live out God’s love for them, and when we have to say something we dare not take God or His word lightly or flippantly. Nor may we take on a holier-than-thou tone with non-believers; we need to come from a place of compassion. It is, after all, a case of one sinner telling another about God’s great mercy!

The decisions you make can change your life!

My years as a student at the University of Pretoria were a wonderful and fulfilling time. My dream was to work with women – to minister to both their inner and outer beings. I had always had an interest in the beauty industry: Willa Krause Skincare is part of our family business. On completion of my studies I was approached by the popular publication, Finesse, a glossy lifestyle magazine for Christian women, to become the editor. I had the women’s ministry of my dreams, serving both the inner and the outer woman. I still write a spiritual column for the magazine, but am now more involved in our family business and minister part-time at the Kameeldrif Dutch Reformed Church. I am also involved in spiritual radio and television, a dynamic ministry that extends beyond the borders of congregation and parish. This is a privilege, and I give God the glory for it!

What would have happened had God not helped me choose?

Yes, it was my choice not to give up all hope there on the hospital bed when the car accident turned my life upside down at the age of sixteen. But I also know that I wasn’t strong enough to make that decision on my own. God was there for me; He helped me to choose life. It’s not always easy to get up after a crisis. Ask God to help you! With his help you can choose to persevere. His grace is sufficient for you!

What is God’s will for me?

As a minister I often encounter people who ask me. What is God’s will for me in this situation; what does He want me to do or choose? Shall I leave my work? Shall I marry this man? The questions around the will of God have been around for centuries, and I struggle with them a lot myself. Some people, when faced with such questions, like to pick up their Bible, let it fall open and take whatever text they find there to apply to their life. We have all been tempted to try this approach. But would you walk into a pharmacy when you’re ill, close your eyes, spin around and take whatever medicine your finger lands on when you stop? I don’t think so. What if, for example, the Bible opens at the verse about Judas hanging himself: would you take that as an instruction for yourself? It is not impossible that God might speak to someone via this method, but I think a long-term relationship with God, and an in-depth study of His word, in which He reveals His will, is a more appropriate path to follow when you are seeking His will for your life. When you ask your earthly dad for advice, you often already know what his answer will be, because of your relationship with him. When you have spent years in a relationship with God and studying His word, you actually already know what His will for you is in given situations.

And yes, we often choose wrongly, but the wonder of the almighty God we worship is that though we make wrong choices, God is still there for us and can use even our wrong choices to serve his purposes."

I also believe that God has given us the gift of common sense, and therefore we must use it in dependence on God! Our common sense, along with our knowledge and experience of life and the counsel of spiritual advisors or mentors, are other ways in which God makes His will known to us. Naturally there will also be times when you have a deep peace about making a certain decision but it goes against your logical mind and thinking. Don’t discount the mystery of God and the peace He gives that goes beyond all understanding.

What a privilege not to have to rely on your own resources when you have to make big decisions! What a privilege to know that there is a Higher Hand that will catch you if you choose wrongly.

I conclude with a story that illustrates what a huge impact your choices have on your life. It is a story about twin brothers who grew up in desperate circumstances. Their father was an alcoholic who abused them physically and emotionally; they grew up in poverty and no opportunities came their way. One brother’s life turned out more or less the same as his father’s: one big disaster. The other brother was highly successful and prospered in almost everything he turned his hand to. When a journalist asked the first brother to what he ascribed his failure in life, he answered, My father was an alcoholic, and I grew up in appalling circumstances. That’s why I am where I am today! The journalist asked the second brother the same question, and his answer was astounding: I ascribe my success to the fact that my father was an alcoholic and I grew up in appalling circumstances. I decided that I would not make the same mistakes my father made; I would rise above my circumstances and choose to live life to the full!

This story teaches us a valuable lesson. You can choose to rise above your circumstances, to reach out to others and to take hold of life. The choice is yours! If you want your circumstances to change, you have to change first!

I can choose to try to take revenge when someone has done me wrong or I can choose to find rest in God and to forgive, thereby refusing to let bitterness destroy my life. I can choose to destroy someone with my words or I can choose to use my words and actions to bring out the good in someone and in this way let our relationship blossom. I can choose for God or against Him, and so on: the choice is yours!

2

Self will run riot

Debbie (Bingham) Nicholson

For every action there is a reaction.

Instant gratification brings temporary relief or pleasure.

Along with selfcentred choices come hard lessons and

huge consequences to bear.

I have