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      Stories of real faith

      Helana Olivier

      Lux Verbi

      To my parents, Hennie and Wilna Beukes, who, through their long-standing good example in Christ, made my choice easy.

      Foreword

      Life happens while we are planning something else. There is no dress rehearsal to prepare us for “real” life. Life happens relentlessly, at the pace of one day at a time. We have scarcely clambered over yesterday’s wall when we find today on our doorstep. Sometimes it takes just one crisis in “today” to send our life forever in a new direction. Then everything is upside down. What do you do when, in the blink of an eye, life takes on a completely different complexion? Will that one big setback I encountered suddenly leave me bitter and bewildered? Will my faith take a permanent knock? And what of the successes? Will unexpected breakthroughs change me into an arrogant, over-confident being?

      Perhaps the secret of life is that there is no great secret. Life proceeds along different routes. For each of us the path of life has different twists and turns. Yet it’s in the middle of such unexpected moments – good or bad – that the true heroes of life are born. These heroes are not like the figures on the silver screen. No, they are ordinary flesh-and-blood people who refuse to surrender in the face of that one great “today-setback”. They are the ones who choose to swim against the current, persevering against all resistance. They are the ones who believe that a new path is possible and who clear that path by living it daily. These true heroes are that small band who grasps God’s hand in a new way in the darkness. They even manage to walk a few steps on water along with Jesus.

      The stories of a few water-walkers are shared first-hand in this book. Their routes are touching, inspiring and downright courageous. Their lives proclaim loudly that unexpected good or bad events do not have the last say over us. True character is proven in the storm, where pain and excesses are transformed by ordinary individuals into new routes of grace.

      This is what I have learnt from the stories of the contributors to this book: That one day of their lives that was totally different did not flatten them. Instead, it inspired them to new heights. They are living examples of what the well-known writer Henri Nouwen said, “I used to hate interruptions to my ministry until I understood that interruptions were my ministry.” No interruption, then, but rather a new ministry is what emerges in each of these stories. What a moving, life-changing book!

      Dr Stephan Joubert

      Honorary Professor, Department of New Testament Studies, University of Pretoria; Research Fellow, Radboud University; The Netherlands Editor, ekerk (echurch)

      Introduction

      Every person makes choices daily, and each of our choices has a consequence.

      – Liesel Krause-Wiid

      Think a little and marvel that God has given you the privilege of being able to choose.

      – Johan Jacobs

      Do the following statements sound familiar?

      • “I can’t believe it’s happening to me again!”

      • “Now that’s Murphy’s Law.”

      • “I’m always in the right place at the wrong time.”

      • “Things just don’t want to work out for me. I can’t understand why!”

      • “Life is playing tricks on me again.”

      Most of us sometimes wonder why particular things happen to us, or we feel that life is treating us unfairly. Sometimes a normally cheerful, lively, positive person feels as though he or she has to drag him or herself out of bed in the morning and cannot face a new day. They feel they have just enough energy for survival. They might previously have been able to transform apparently negative situations into positive ones, and it hadn’t been too difficult since nothing dramatic had ever disturbed the normal flow of their lives. Nothing had really upset their applecart yet. But then, one day, the whole street is covered in rotten apples. Before, their scales had more or less balanced. Now the weights have tilted to one side. And the thing they were weighing has fallen out the other side. They have totally lost control.

      It is at such times that Christians sometimes want to ask God why He allowed this unpleasant thing to happen in their lives, since they were under the impression that they were living according to His will. Dear reader, sometimes it isn’t that God allowed it. By having made a wrong choice, we got ourselves into that unpleasant situation. Debbie (Bingham) Nicholson writes in her story as follows: “Selfcentred choices come along, hard lessons and huge consequences to bear” But she also writes that redemption is possible even if wrong choices were made initially.

      Liesel Krause-Wiid writes as follows: “And yes, we often choose wrongly, but the wonder of the almighty God we worship is that though we make wrong choices, God is still there for us and can use even our wrong choices to serve his purposes.”

      I invited 22 people from different sections of society to share with us the choices they made at a certain stage of their life. Although they represent a diversity of spheres, they all made one choice that has had a common factor, namely to hand over the control of their lives to Christ. We read in these surprisingly honest accounts how things aren’t always rosy on their Christian journey. A car accident can compel you to change direction. Sometimes we read that we have no control over certain situations and that we have to trust God for strength to survive each day. A background of wrong choices, such as prostitution, drug addiction and alcoholism, can be wonderfully turned around into a life of service to God. And sometimes things like cancer, an unloving mother or child abuse can be transformed through forgiveness into a life that is pleasing to God. Some people are so fortunate that all their life choices thus far have resulted in only good things. The honour is then given to God alone. So read for yourself how these contributors have recounted their experiences, each in their own words.

      My sincere appreciation to each contributor for the time they invested in this project. My prayer is that each of you will be richly blessed in future for your participation. I believe with all my heart that you will touch heartstrings and draw people to reflect on their own lives.

      Helana Olivier

      1

      Choose not to choose on your own

      Liesel Krause-Wiid

      The choice is always yours

      Helana’s invitation to me to be part of a book dealing with choices made me stop and review my life and the choices I had made.

      Every person makes choices daily, and each of our choices has a consequence. Indeed, the choices we make will largely determine the quality of the lives we live. In difficult situations I can choose, for example, whether to be a victim or a victor; choose to give up on life or choose to push on, by the grace of God. Even the food I choose to eat has an effect on my day and on my body: some foods and drinks leave you tired and listless, while healthier choices give you energy and vitality.

      Eleanor Roosevelt said, “One’s philosophy is not best expressed in words; it is expressed in the choices one makes … and the choices we make are ultimately our responsibility.”

      You and I cannot choose how we will die, but we can choose how we will live! It says in God’s Word that we are created in His image. This means, among other things, that we have the ability to choose. We are not puppets controlled by God or anyone else: God has given us the wonderful capability of being able to make decisions. So many things can be taken away from a person, but no one can deprive me of the decision as to how I will respond to my circumstances! That remains my choice. I can choose to take hold of opportunities I encounter on my life’s path, or I can simply choose to let them slip through my fingers.

      What I choose to do or say brings about particular results in my life. As children of the Lord we can do no other than to know God in our decisions! He equips us to choose with insight. His Word says it is He who equips us and that

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