KNOWING WE ARE LOVED: “Hope for those who do not feel loved by God.”
Today’s Message of Encouragement from Discovering A BETTER LIFE MINISTRIES
(Stories of Real People, Real Events, Real Places)
And are dedicated to HELPING
Men and Women Find PEACE and HOPE
(John 10:10)
(Ron Bainbridge Editor) (August 15th, 2020)
KNOWING WE ARE LOVED
“Hope for those who do not feel loved by God”
To know we are loved! Unfortunately many of us have lived too long in darkness, feeling unwanted, useless, ugly, and fit only to be abused. Sometimes, into our lives comes “a significant other” who seems to care even though we are afraid to believe they do.
However, too often we are afraid that if this “significant other” does get to know us, the warmth will dissipate and we will be alone again. Amazingly, the better they get to know us, the more they seem to care, and so the world turns the right way up, the sun comes out, and we come to life.
Jim McGuiggan, a colleague of mine, in writing about this phenomenon in one of his books, asks the pointed question: “Has anyone experienced this at a deeper level than John Merrick, ‘The Elephant Man,’ who was made famous by the movie of that name?”
Deformed beyond description, used, and abused for years in the most hideous fashion, John Merrick felt profoundly alone except for those times when with damnable cruelty people intruded into his life to gape and shove “the freak” around!
A riveting piece in the movie shows the grotesque Merrick fleeing a mob through a train station. They finally corner him in a public toilet, some gaping, some laughing, and some yelling insults at him as he cries out in his pain, “I am not an animal. I am not an animal! I am a human being!” And then, completely traumatized and exhausted, he sinks to the floor and wearily says, “I am a man!”
Dr. Frederick Treves counselled Merrick and down below the ugliness, hidden behind the ugliness, and contrary to the testimony of the ugliness, the doctor finds a sensitive human being. Eventually, down behind the horror he had experienced in his life, Merrick begins to live again!
Then comes the visit of the beautiful and acclaimed actress, Mrs. Kendall, who sees his ugliness and recognizes it, but meets it with such sensitivity and gentleness that Merrick, for the moment, rises above it. She exchanges some lines with him from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Then John Merrick reads from the book she gave him, with her quoting. When the lines conclude, she smiles and, with genuine warmth and in gentle mockery, says, “Oh, Mr. Merrick, you’re not an elephant man at all!”
“Oh no?” he responds softly, afraid to agree.
“You’re Romeo!” Mrs. Kendall whispers and gently kisses his supremely ugly cheek.
John Merrick can hardly believe it for the joy---the wonder of it all! He is overwhelmed and can scarcely believe that her beauty could meet his ugliness and in warm embrace look beyond it. But however astonishing, it had happened, and life begins to flood into his sad soul.
Not long before he dies, Merrick tells Dr. Treves, “Do not worry about me, my friend. I am happy every hour of the day. My life is full because I know I am loved. I have gained myself.” And then pausing to look at the doctor, he gently says, “I could not have said that if it were not for you.”
David Prior called this little speech “arguably one of the best descriptions we have anywhere of the impact of the gospel on one man’s life.”
We are loved by God? Can it be true? If we dare to believe that profoundly astonishing fact, shackles will dissolve, link by damning link, freeing us from ourselves and our paralyzing ugliness. We’ll be free from the scorn of our peers who know and despise us for our sinful weaknesses and who enjoy reminding others of them.
We’ll be free from them because they’ve been outflanked and made powerless.
We’ll be free from them because our loving God comes to us, is gentle with us, and then holds us in a warm embrace saying, “Oh, you’re not an ‘elephant man/woman’ at all!”
Friend, where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is the love of God. And where the love of God is, we are able to come to ourselves, to look out from behind our fears, pains, and ugliness---and say, “I am happy every hour of the day. My life is full because I know I am loved. I have gained myself. I could not have said that if it were not for you.”
Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom to rise in joy above an unhealthy dependence on the goodwill of others. There is freedom to say that all people “count with me, but none too much.”
Friend, we know from many of the letters we receive from readers of our Messages of Encouragement, that a lot of people feel the same void that John Merrick, ‘The Elephant Man’ had experienced.
Some of our readers express the fact they are lonely … frustrated … angry … confused. They desperately want to make contact with a loving God … but can’t seem to find Him.
Friend, if this description fits you, we think we can help. We certainly want to, that’s why we encourage you to write to us for your FREE copy of our booklet titled “THE RELENTLESS LOVE of GOD!”
To receive your complimentary copy, write to Discovering A BETTER LIFE, P.O. Box 1540, Albany Western Australia 6331. If you prefer, you can phone us on: (08) 98 418 418.
Or Email us at: abl-alb@omninet.net.au
“The supreme happiness of life is the conviction
That we are loved; loved for ourselves,
Or, rather, loved in spite of ourselves.”
(Victor Hugo) -- (1802-1885)
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