June 23, 1999
LIFE & WORK:
A glimpse of God's
compassion compels service
___Malachi 3:13-4:6
___By Brett Younger
___Lake Shore Baptist Church, Waco
___Why do good things happen to bad people?
___The people in Malachi's day want to know why they should be faithful when life seems to go better for those who aren't: "It is futile to serve God" (v. 14). The prophet tells them that when doing right is a struggle they need to remember how it will all end. They should be patient because God will claimthose who continue to serve. The day is coming that "will burn like a furnace" (v. 1) and "rise with healing in its wings" (v. 2). "I will spare them, just as in compassion a man spares his son who serves him" (v. 17).
___When I was a teenager, my father was the pastor of the strictest Baptist church in the world (or at least northeast Mississippi). His preaching style was vaguely reminiscent of John the Baptist. He is a kind and caring man, but when I was growing up he frightened me.
___My father taught me how to drive the right way--hands at 10 and two o'clock and five miles below the speed limit. As part of my teenage rebellion, I put my hands at nine and three o'clock and went five miles above the speed limit.
___One evening, I was the fourth car following a tractor down a two-lane road when I inexplicably decided to pass them all. I ended up rolling my father's car two and a half times before landing upside down in a ditch. As I began rolling, I thought, "I am dead." When the car stopped, I thought of my father. Once again, "I am dead." My father's car was totaled. When the police officer asked who to call to come get me, I said, "Let me think about that."
___How could I have been so stupid? The inevitable grounding, the taking of the keys and whatever corporal punishment he would come up with were all less terrifying than the fury he would undoubtedly, deservedly unleash.
___I was thinking about the judgment to come when I spotted my father walking toward me. A helpful church member had called him.
___I started the prodigal's speech ("I am no longer worthy to be called your son"), but I didn't get very far. I was completely unprepared for the painful, wondrous thing my father did. He took me in his arms and hugged me. All he ever said was: "I'm so glad you're OK. I'm so glad you're OK." The fire of my father's love burned and cleansed me.
___I had never imagined he would come with healing in his wings. The day of reckoning was great and terrible. Maybe he thought that forgiveness would be the best way to keep my hands at 10 and two o'clock and my speed below the speed limit. Or maybe he was just glad his child was OK.
___When we catch a glimpse of the God who comes with compassion and the love that will hold us forever, we will gratefully spend our lives serving God.
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