A Whole Nother Life

Free Preview The guest speaker’s message was entitled “It’s Not God’s Fault!” Jayla was silently drowning in her habitual cravings. Her attention span had been sporadic ever since she began to wean herself from alcohol. Throughout the day she had thought about how to get a drink and about the supply in Shawn’s truck. However, the speaker’s message succeeded in diverting Jayla’s attention from a carnal desire to a spiritual one. The guest speaker enumerated some traits about God’s infallible nature. “God is perfect and he has a perfect Son in whom he is well pleased. His Son’s name is ‘Jesus’. God has never made any mistakes and has never done anything wrong because he is ‘sinless’and ‘pure’. He is, he was, and he will forever be… because he’s ‘eternal’. He’s the same yesterday, today and forever…because he’s ‘unchanging’. He can not lie…because he’s ‘truth’… If he spoke it, he will bring it to pass, and if he said it, he will do it, because he is ‘uncompromising’. He’s always good and he’s always caring, because he’s ‘compassionate’. He hates evil and abhors sin… because he’s ‘holy’. He punishes the wicked and the treacherous…because he’s a God of ‘justice’. He causes the sun to rise everyday and the sun to set every evening… because he is ‘faithful. I could go on infinitum, but you should check the Bible for more truth about who God is and what he’s all about to you.” Jayla was captivated as she inclined her ears for more. The speaker ended her talk with a brief testimony: “When I was a child I spoke like a child, I played like a child, I thought and reasoned like a child, and therefore I made childish choices. However, when I became a woman of faith and wisdom, I put away all childish things…but not before my life went into the danger zone.” The speaker continued. “My parents taught me right from wrong, using the standards of society and culture, not the bible. When I became a teenager, I thought and did whatever the teens of my culture did. If it felt good and looked good, then it had to be good. Whenever I made decisions that reaped negative consequences, it was never my fault. When I loss my virginity, it was the guy’s fault for seducing me at a house party that I did not have permission to attend. Later in the school year, I found out that the boyfriend with whom I’d been loyal to was never loyal to me. I discovered this deep betrayal on my social media page when all his victims came forth to expose him as the source of their pain and suffering from STDs. Shortly after their posts, I too suffered, with moderate symptoms. It has been said that ‘Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned’. So, I blasted social media with his photo as if he were a poster boy for the ‘most wanted criminal’. Only because, it wasn’t my fault. Later, as a young adult, I became a believer in Christ Jesus and I heard a teaching about Jesus …and about God’s sovereignty and power. Since God is omnipotent or all powerful, then he has the power to stop bad things from happening to good people. Right? So… in my mid twenties, I got married, to a young man whom I thought was the man of my dreams. Before marriage, my dream man confided in me that he had another family whose mother he never married. I said ‘I do’ anyway. Before we had children together, we break up. Unbeknownst to me, he goes back to live with his ‘first wife’ and family. Again, he returns to me. Two children later, we get a legal divorce and he is charged with polygamy! I was on my own again, and unemployed with two extra mouths to feed… But that was my past life. And now, by God’s grace, I am a much wiser woman who is totally committed to living a new life in Christ…”