What brought me to searching the internet - part 3
What do you do when you’re starving all you are offered is a diet of “cotton candy?”
That is literally how I felt about the sermons we were getting - “cotton candy.” They looked good, they smelled good, and they “tickled the senses” but once in the mouth - nothing.
Never in my wildest imagination would I have dreamed how God would bring us to “real food” at this time in our lives.
In 2002, our older son (20 years old at the time) decided that he wanted to take up bull riding! (Yes, “bull riding”!) Of course, we were totally against it, but hey, what can you do when they are that age? He had a full time job, was (sorta) living outside our home, attended a church different from ours, and was a part of a youth ministry called “Yoke” ( www.yokeyouth.com ). He was a “good kid” just bull headed (no pun intended!)
Anyway, he did eventually get very seriously hurt - ultimately losing a kidney, but God used that accident to lead us to some real spiritual food!
The next day after his accident, the hospital was flooded with “Yoke Folk” - the other youth ministry members. Plus, Joe’s pastor came to see him. When I met Dana Mathewson, I felt like I had known him all my life. (I found out later, that that was the way everyone who knew him described him.)
We only talked for a very few minutes before the conversation turned to theology. In the midst of this horrible, life-threatening accident, God had brought me to someone with food! I met his wife Jennifer, and we became immediate friends. Over the course of the next 3 years I would go to them for food “in between times” either when I could sneak away from our church, or when I was so hungry I couldn’t take it anymore. I could write pages and pages of our love for them and their ministry, but suffice it to say that there are not enough words to convey how God used them to touch our lives.
In July 2005, Dana officiated at that same son’s wedding, and in September 2005, Dana Mathewson was killed in a tragic car accident. We, along with all of Knoxville (TN) were devastated. The man was loved everywhere he went. His sermons were the most deeply theological, yet easily understood sermons I’d ever heard, and his ministry touched everyone he met.
A couple of weeks or so after he died, my husband and I were lying in bed one night (he was trying to sleep and of course, I was reading…) when he suddenly turned over and said with a panic stricken voice, “We have no one to go to!” (Scared the hound out of me!)
I said, “What do you mean ‘no one to go to’?” He said, “with (our other pastor) out of the picture, and now Dana dead - we have no one that we can really trust, no one to teach God’s Word, to go to!”
And I realized, he was right. Who would we turn to now?
Next - The World Wide Web…
That is literally how I felt about the sermons we were getting - “cotton candy.” They looked good, they smelled good, and they “tickled the senses” but once in the mouth - nothing.
Never in my wildest imagination would I have dreamed how God would bring us to “real food” at this time in our lives.
In 2002, our older son (20 years old at the time) decided that he wanted to take up bull riding! (Yes, “bull riding”!) Of course, we were totally against it, but hey, what can you do when they are that age? He had a full time job, was (sorta) living outside our home, attended a church different from ours, and was a part of a youth ministry called “Yoke” ( www.yokeyouth.com ). He was a “good kid” just bull headed (no pun intended!)
Anyway, he did eventually get very seriously hurt - ultimately losing a kidney, but God used that accident to lead us to some real spiritual food!
The next day after his accident, the hospital was flooded with “Yoke Folk” - the other youth ministry members. Plus, Joe’s pastor came to see him. When I met Dana Mathewson, I felt like I had known him all my life. (I found out later, that that was the way everyone who knew him described him.)
We only talked for a very few minutes before the conversation turned to theology. In the midst of this horrible, life-threatening accident, God had brought me to someone with food! I met his wife Jennifer, and we became immediate friends. Over the course of the next 3 years I would go to them for food “in between times” either when I could sneak away from our church, or when I was so hungry I couldn’t take it anymore. I could write pages and pages of our love for them and their ministry, but suffice it to say that there are not enough words to convey how God used them to touch our lives.
In July 2005, Dana officiated at that same son’s wedding, and in September 2005, Dana Mathewson was killed in a tragic car accident. We, along with all of Knoxville (TN) were devastated. The man was loved everywhere he went. His sermons were the most deeply theological, yet easily understood sermons I’d ever heard, and his ministry touched everyone he met.
A couple of weeks or so after he died, my husband and I were lying in bed one night (he was trying to sleep and of course, I was reading…) when he suddenly turned over and said with a panic stricken voice, “We have no one to go to!” (Scared the hound out of me!)
I said, “What do you mean ‘no one to go to’?” He said, “with (our other pastor) out of the picture, and now Dana dead - we have no one that we can really trust, no one to teach God’s Word, to go to!”
And I realized, he was right. Who would we turn to now?
Next - The World Wide Web…
posted by Betty Newman at 10:51 AM
2 Comments:
While the Holidays are times of joy for some, they are a time of depression for others. I want to encourage everyone to pray for those who have lost loved ones and are struggling through this holiday season.
I enjoyed looking over your blog. You have some good and insightful things to say. I recently started my own blog to take a philosophical approach to presenting Christ to thinkers. I would be honored if you took a minute to take a look at my blog. It can be found at the following URL:
http://knowsjob.blogspot.com
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