Noble People

I don't remember the first time I suffered from cancer. I can't say I really remember clearly anything which transpired then at all. After encounters with God while dying and saying simple first words like, 'no more' (pain) I cant say I can recall much of anything. A lot of people go in for the near death experience stories these days- and who is to blame them? A peak behind the curtain is something we all naturally yearn for. But when people say I am a miracle or how great I am... while I have been raised in a culture which helps reinforce this, I simply don't agree. I'm not doing this to be noble. I really don't see how great I am. I didn't really do a thing. I just happened to be the guy who was there at the time. God did all the work. The noble people are doctors like the ones who happened to work my floor that day. The noble ones are ordinary people like my parents. The noble people are ones who shop at Walmart and get gas at your corner convenience store. 

Great moments of God aren't always dressed up like Focus on the Family stories or Reader's Digest articles- they aren't always found in church pews or missionary trips. They're usually not on TV or emblazoned on T-shirts or pious bumper stickers. They're found in the very fabric of what makes me and you. People who need desperately. Who are dirty and broken and weak and helpless. People who have been told 'no' too many times to count. Who are under-employed. Who are broke. People who owe about as much to bill collectors as they do to the cross, it seems.

Because when you've boiled your soul down and found it wanting, you will begin to realize just what sort of stern stuff exactly God has made of his image inside you. You will begin to understand just how much he treasures your simplicity and your painful honesty. I promise you the words you read in the Bible or hear emblazoned on your mind and heart from the Holy Spirit will conspicuously lack the flannel-board edging it once was tamed with.

Great men and women will be great because they need God.
People like you and I will mean something because we cry out.
God will be savior because he bleeds for us all.
Love will be true because it is self-evident.

God be with you.

-Ryan.


Like what you read? Join in with your own insights, stories and art- send them to ryanpfreeman1@aol.com. Thanks and God bless -Ryan