Category Archives: Stories

Stories. Fiction and Non-fiction.

Excerpt from today’s writing: forgiveness theme…

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What Raul said about having forgiven Suzette had got to Vince more than anything. He kept thinking about it. Raul said that he’d tried but been unable to forgive Suzette for taking Maddie from him. He’d been able to forgive a lot, but not that. But when he’d started praying about it, God had helped him learn how to forgive. “Sometimes it’s a daily choice, or even a moment by moment. It has definitely gotten easier with time, but…” Raul had broken off and looked away for a moment, “It was definitely harder for awhile after Maddie came back, and then when the stories started coming forth…well, I had to do a lot of praying and choosing to forgive again. A lot happened to Maddie after she took her, things I don’t think I’ll ever know all about. Maddie can be pretty close-lipped.” Vince had agreed. And privately Vince had been wondering ever since. Was it possible to be free of his mother’s…of his own inability to forgive her completely? And his own experiences didn’t even come close to things that had happened to Maddie and now as he heard things about Misha’s father.

Misha didn’t act like someone who had been abused however. “Misha, you have trouble forgiving?”

“Yep. Anyone who tells you different, lies.”

“Trouble forgiving your father?”

“Yeah, most of that is past now, and I’m finding God is restoring those portions of our relationship. He was too severe. My biggest hurdle with forgiveness was forgiving God, however.”

Vince hadn’t thought of it in quite such a way, but it made sense, he guessed that was part of his problem with accepting that God might even be interested in knowing him in the way Pastor Dale said. He was seeing some of what the man was saying, and darn but he did feel awfully guilty of his own sins when he thought about Jesus dying on the cross for him. He should ask more questions, but he was still biding his time…but the day would come when he’d need to answer some hard questions about himself. Not about who his family was, not about what crimes his father had done or that his brother was perpetuating in family tradition, but about what Vince had done. Who knew maybe then he’d be able to address the thoughts of his mother. He’d stayed away from those thoughts for sixteen years, he’d been seven when she’d left and set it all behind him.

Misha picked the conversation back up, “Forgiving God for letting my mother get cancer and then taking her from us. That was the hardest, still is hard sometimes. Everything in our life changed. It was a direct attack upon our family and not one of us escaped unscathed.”
“You’re the only one who seems to be doing okay.”

“You call this okay? One brother who traipse around the world never settling lest he might have to face real life someday, another spending a couple of years in prison for getting involved with the wrong people, and another serving life for killing someone in a fight. Then there’s Dad, who was just plain stupid, in his business partner choice as well as not keeping track of his financial obligations, never thought the day would come when I’d see him behind bars. Not to mention that fact that I’m raising a child of each of my brothers…none of whom have ever been married…” She broke off and grinned at him, “This is starting to sound worse than it is.”

“I don’t think so.”

“But it does sound worse, because I’m more and more convinced that God brought me here. Dad was right, people here are trying to take care of me.”

“If you’ll let them.”

“Yeah, I’m working on that. Hard to trust people, and I’m pretty stubborn.”

“I wouldn’t know anything about that.” Vince’s dry tone made her laugh, and he joined in. It was when his friends said things like this that he began to think that maybe he’d have to check into this God who could cause a body go through things and yet He didn’t leave one alone to face life. He could use someone like that on his side.

Abandoned to Die

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Despair lurks near.  I must keep my guard up.  My children need me.  When I was a child, I thought this could never happen to me.  To my children.  How naïve I was.

I thought there would be somewhere to run, somewhere to go, someone to help.  But my friends, my neighbors…their children are dying too.  I wonder if my eyes show my story as their eyes show theirs. 

Each day, as I go to the pool I see her there, my friend Sasha.  We don’t speak, but we linger as we wait.

For what we wait, I do not know.  There is no one to stop us.  We want, we pray, for someone to stop us.  There’s no clean water here and praying did not stop Sasha’s babies from dying.  She is mostly silent now.  I miss her laugh. 

With a quiet sigh, I take the first step.  She follows, knowing that we must provide water for our families.  She doesn’t know how sick my children, whom she loves dearly, really are.  I don’t have the heart to tell her.  Instead I must believe, no matter how hopeless, that there is someone out there, up there, to hear my prayers.

The preceding story is fictional, but the need for clean water is universal.  Each year, if safe drinking water were available, 2.2 million children’s deaths could be prevented.  The Water4 foundation is dedicated to help by digging wells—using hand-drilling technology, low-tech drill kits, and training.  They also desire to produce jobs for nationals by training them to dig wells.   When a well is dug, the equipment can be moved to the next location.  Thus, they can reach remote, rural areas with water.

God created us to have a need for water.  When it is absent, or polluted, we suffer.  Those are the facts.  He also called us to share His living water—the water that never fails.  How can we share that spiritual water with those who are dying and those whose children are dying from lack of safe drinking water?  By first providing for physical needs, we open the door to sharing about the spiritual well that never runs dry.

Water4 shows God’s love by providing water, which prepares hearts for the Gospel message.  They have partnered with World Vision, which has a strong evangelistic emphasis.  Together they meet mankind’s need for physical and spiritual water.

There are many who, as in the above story, suffer silently—with only God to hear their cries.  But He does hear.  Like the story’s narrator, I want to hear Sasha laugh again.  That can only happen if families have access to clean drinking water.  Prayerfully consider supporting Water4, a foundation that understands that eternal life can spring from a simple cup of water.

“For whoever gives you a cup of water to drink in My name, because you belong to Christ, assuredly, I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward.”  Mark 9:41 (NKJV)

Endeavor

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When starting a new endeavor, it always seems to take longer than expected.  Whereas, this is normal for the men in my family (however long they say a task is going to take, always takes twice as long, I’ve learned to do the math quietly…one hour is two, two days is four…etc.), it is not normal for me–except in the case of this website, or blog, or whatever you call it.  I have hit the tops of time I can spend on it now, just wanted to get the annoying, but informative, wordpress pre-fabbed verbage off of the site, so talk to ya’ll later!