Defining Moments
What have been your defining moments?
Yesterday I was learning about Saint Francis. I'll admit, I wasn't listening to the whole lecture, but I did take away this little tidbit:
Before Francis was a saint he was a good guy. He loved God and His creation, but he had a great fear of lepers. I imagine that in the Middle Ages lepers will still just as much outcasts as they were in Jesus' time. It would have been natural to fear the disease that could spread from them. Society probably said to avoid them, but God had not forgotten them.
You see, one day God changed things for Francis. As he was going down the street in his normal fashion, he saw a leper begging on the side of the road. He had seen plenty of lepers on the road before, but at this moment something came over him. He stopped. He bent down. He gave the leper some money. And then he embraced the leper and kissed him.
As he puts it, what had been sour to him was now sweet. What had been feared was now embraced. Because on that road God stirred in his heart and changed something. For Francis, this was a turning point in his life, a defining moment. He went from hating the lepers to walking with them in ministry. All because he listened when God told him to love the leper on the road.
So this is my question:
What are the moments that have defined your life, changed your path?
And what if. . .what if we are too busy to notice the leper on the street? What if we are so caught up in hating and fearing that which we don't understand that we miss the defining moment God is trying to show us? I am personally challenged to pray for those things which I fear or want to stay far from. I want to pray that God will renew my heart to the people and the things of this world that make me nervous or uncomfortable, so that His love can spread from my arms and embrace everyone in His creation. I don't want to miss my defining moments because of fear.
I refuse to miss God's direction and calling in my life because I am too busy to notice the leper on the side of the street.
Yesterday I was learning about Saint Francis. I'll admit, I wasn't listening to the whole lecture, but I did take away this little tidbit:
Before Francis was a saint he was a good guy. He loved God and His creation, but he had a great fear of lepers. I imagine that in the Middle Ages lepers will still just as much outcasts as they were in Jesus' time. It would have been natural to fear the disease that could spread from them. Society probably said to avoid them, but God had not forgotten them.
You see, one day God changed things for Francis. As he was going down the street in his normal fashion, he saw a leper begging on the side of the road. He had seen plenty of lepers on the road before, but at this moment something came over him. He stopped. He bent down. He gave the leper some money. And then he embraced the leper and kissed him.
As he puts it, what had been sour to him was now sweet. What had been feared was now embraced. Because on that road God stirred in his heart and changed something. For Francis, this was a turning point in his life, a defining moment. He went from hating the lepers to walking with them in ministry. All because he listened when God told him to love the leper on the road.
So this is my question:
What are the moments that have defined your life, changed your path?
And what if. . .what if we are too busy to notice the leper on the street? What if we are so caught up in hating and fearing that which we don't understand that we miss the defining moment God is trying to show us? I am personally challenged to pray for those things which I fear or want to stay far from. I want to pray that God will renew my heart to the people and the things of this world that make me nervous or uncomfortable, so that His love can spread from my arms and embrace everyone in His creation. I don't want to miss my defining moments because of fear.
I refuse to miss God's direction and calling in my life because I am too busy to notice the leper on the side of the street.
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