A Desperate Plea and God’s Answer: You Are Worthy!
You Are Worthy!
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
Ephesians [2:10]
He sat at his kitchen table, desperate, and knew that time had run out. He was faced with eviction, and in a few days would have to leave the house that he had lived in for over two decades. While some of the issues that led up to this moment were self-inflicted, many were from a life that hadn’t always been kind to him.
His family had tried to help, but it wasn’t the right answer for him. Sure, he had passed on other opportunities to solve his problem. Now, sitting alone at his kitchen table, he silently cried out, “Why isn’t God helping me? Why have I been abandoned?” He knew the answer was in turning to God, but how would God help?
He did have to move out.
Disabled for over forty years, he ended up living in a hotel room. He could only stay for two days, forcing him to look again for housing. On the third day, in a new hotel, he woke up early to once again search for a place to live.
It was six-thirty in the morning, and he saw it on Craig’s list—a house that he could afford in a nearby town he loved. Immediately, he sent a note asking if he could see the house. The poster wrote back and said, “Sure, meet me at eight-thirty.”
When he arrived, he met a gracious man whose kindness emanated from everything he said. He knew from the owner’s behavior that he was Christian. The kind man listened to his story and said the house was his. No credit application or background check—he could move in right then and there.
The house was better than his previous home and addressed the issues of his disability. The neighborhood was filled with people and not isolated in some dark off-the-grid place. In a moment, his life changed. God had heard his plea.
By noontime, his family was bringing his belongings.
His mother and father showed up to help him arrange the boxes and his house. And, as only a mother could do, everything was made to look like and feel like a home.
That night, he reflected on the dizzying events that had transpired when all seemed lost. He was tired and feeling exhausted. He didn’t know that his body was being ravaged by a deadly infection; the fatigue and exhaustion of the last few days had worn down his immune system.
Soon he was lying in a hospital bed and had IV drips pouring antibiotics into his body. Once again, he was desperate. Why had his luck changed so quickly?
Forty years earlier, he had been in a terrible accident and nearly died.
It had left him disabled. For those forty years, he’d had to live in a world built for the able-bodied. People didn’t always understand the loneliness of being disabled. They just said, “Keep your chin up,” leaving him trying to figure out how to fit into a world that isn’t made for the disabled.
His sweet and kind behavior exuded warmth, but his rebellious nature forced others to turn away, which created many of the issues that had left him homeless. His need for attention had caused many problems.
Within a week of finding his new home, he now had one more prayer for God. He was told he needed to go to rehab to prevent the infection from returning. He now wanted to go back to the same place that had restored his life forty years earlier after the accident.
Again, this prayer was answered. When he was well enough to be transported back, he went to the organization that helped him so many years earlier.
It was a familiar place filled with kind and professional people who cared.
He is in his new home today.
He now knows God considers him worthy because of his restored health and home. I remember him asking me, “Am I worthy in God’s eyes?” Undeniably he is…as we all are. His question is one we all have at some point in our lives: “Are we worthy?”
A formed of mine, Will, says that to ever think we aren’t worthy of God’s love is bad theology. God loves all humankind, regardless of our past.
He had received his answer of his worthiness, through God’s answers to his prayers. He was worthy. I pray deeply now that he remembers this and doesn’t need to cry out any longer. God is always with him. I pray that he holds tight to God and does what he needs to continue to heal.
His is a tougher road than the one for those of us who are able-bodied. Perhaps his rebellious nature will be soothed by this knowledge.
He is worthy. You are all worthy!
Blessings, until next time,
Bruce L. Hartman
Dr. Bruce L. Hartman is the author of Jesus & Co. and Your Faith Has Made You Well.
Photo Credit: Dalene Johnson
