Then and Now: From H. S. Yearbook to Facebook

I recently read through the varied notes that fellow students wrote in my high school yearbooks. Many of the experiences and private jokes to which they referred I no longer remember. But in most of the scrawled messages one word stuck out – FUN.

One jokester wrote, “Don’t be good. Don’t have fun. Worst of luck in college. How’s that for a change?” But most everybody else reminded me of the FUN times we had and to have FUN in the future. And as I think about it, things haven’t changed. To most young people today, having FUN is one of the most important goals in life. And it was for me, too, back then, along with the pursuit of popularity.

In 1961 when I was 11, the summer before I entered junior high, I went to Bible camp. There I gave my life to Jesus. I had heard of Him in Sunday school and memorized Bible verses to get to camp. But it wasn’t until a short, stout, balding preacher made clear my sinful state and eternal damnation on a stormy night at camp that I realized I needed Jesus to take my sins away and make me fit for Heaven. A counselor put her arm around me while I shed tears and bowed my head and prayed to have my sins forgiven through what Jesus did for me on the Cross. God never forgot what happened in my heart that night, even though I did, for a time.

Camp was fun, and at first I was excited about my newfound faith and tried to introduce my friends to Jesus. But I soon learned that it wasn’t fun to feel rejected by my peers because I was “religious,” so I gradually walked away from my faith and took up the pursuit of popularity and…yes, having fun.

My superficial world fell apart when my dad took his own life on April 3, 1966. I was sixteen. The deeper questions of life that I had already begun to consider suddenly rose up before me like screaming ghosts, and fear became my constant companion. Nevertheless, a year and a half later I was in college having fun again, but deep down a void within me grew and threatened to engulf me.

A year after graduating from college, in the fall of 1972, I finally broke down mentally. My mind was full of irrational fears and thoughts that made no sense. I was committed to a mental institution where gradually, through medication, counseling, a program of activities and, most of all, home visits to my sister’s house (which included attending church), my mind began to heal.

After two and a half months in the State Hospital I was released, and my sister and her husband took me home to stay with them. My sister had committed her life to Jesus Christ the year before and through the teaching, prayers and kindness of her church and her example as she lovingly cared for me, my faith in God was restored. Over the years I have found the answers to the deeper questions of life in God’s Word and the void that threatened to overwhelm me has been filled with the love and grace of God. Hopelessness and fear have been replaced with purpose and joy.

So now as I read Facebook posts of old high school friends with whom I’m reconnecting, I am having FUN getting to know them all over again. And  I “like” that some of them have the same Friend I do.

HOW THIS BLOG WAS BORN

For over five years, I did the same thing at the end of nearly every day. I would open my e-mail, reread any mail from my sister I had received that day, then hit reply and write to her about my day, her day, what she or I may be facing, sharing experiences, blessings, scripture verses and hymns, with the goal to comfort and encourage her as she bravely battled multiple myeloma. On December 17, 2013 she came out the victor as she was transported through Heaven’s gates into the very presence of her Saviour whom she loved and trusted throughout her journey.

It has been an adjustment for me to fill that void in the evenings with something meaningful to do. Truth be told, I miss my sister, although I would not wish her back. My loss is her gain. And someday I will join her.

But meanwhile, there are others who are hurting and in need of comfort and encouragement. What they really need is what sustained my sister Marlea through her illness – a personal relationship with the God of the universe. To know Him is to love Him. But how does one get to know Him in an intimate way?

First of all, by reading His love letters as recorded in the Bible. My sister read through the Bible many times. She memorized verses from the Bible as a child through adulthood. She listened to many sermons and studied God’s Word at home and at church, alone and with others. After a while, she began to teach God’s Word to others. Eventually, God led her and her husband to be missionaries in France, joyfully sharing the message of God’s Word to people there.

It was in France that Marlea first learned that she had an incurable cancer. And even as the doctor explained it to her, she said to herself, “I’m going to trust God through this.” And she did.

She could trust God and His goodness because she knew God personally. He had brought her through many trials: a stillborn baby girl. Their fourth son taken in an apartment fire in his last year of college. Helping to nurse her dear mother-in-law through pancreatic cancer till God took her. Not to mention how she came alongside many other hurting people to comfort them in their trouble and grief.

What better way to fill my time than to do what Marlea had so often encouraged me to do and  has been my passion since childhood – to write…......blogs. What a simple way to say what I want to say to whomever God leads to read it. That’s you.