| Author |
Message |
Carol_2
Registered user
Username: Carol_2
Post Number: 285
Registered: 2-2002
| | Posted on Thursday, March 10, 2005 - 5:49 am: |     |
I don't know about the rest of you, but I for one have been very saddened and stressed by this thread.
I just want to say to Cy and his wife, please forgive us. It took such courage to share your tragic experience with us. And now you face the fire. It is totally understandable that you hesitate to share your story with others. Such a private experience, something between you and God, and now it's tossed around on the internet like this. I'm sorry, I just can't seem to find the words.....but I am so incredibly sorry and heartsick for what you experienced - I cannot even begin to imagine the emotional trauma and heartache.....and we sinful, filthy human beings dare to discuss it as if we have any kind of wisdom.
I'm sorry if I don't make much sense. I'm just sickened by this. Again, Cy and family, please forgive us....we know not what we do. |
Colleentinker
Registered user
Username: Colleentinker
Post Number: 1567
Registered: 12-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, March 10, 2005 - 6:45 am: | |
And I echo you, Carol. I am so sorry. I did not mean to degenerate into a philosophical discussion. I only wanted to say that our job is never to condemn someone else's decisions when all we see is an external act. I should never have tried to explain myself as I did above and instead just stuck to honoring each other's decisions before God.
Cy, please forgive me. I feel nothing but support and compassion for you and your wife, and I made the situation worse. I honor you for your courage to share your struggleóan act which will give courage to others who face impossible situations as well.
We cannot know another person's struggle simply by observing. I have lived through situations in which I and those I love have been similarly misunderstood, and I am so sorry for my part in trivializing what you have experienced.
Quite frankly, I just feel like crying when I realize how much pain we cause each other by assigning guilt when we are nowhere near the center of the situation. Only God knows our hearts--and I am thankful that He holds and knows mine, and that no one's external observation determines my guilt or innocence.
Cy, you are loved and appreciated here, and I honor you for your courage in sharing your life with us. Please forgive me.
Colleen |
Karenjw
Registered user
Username: Karenjw
Post Number: 6
Registered: 3-2005
| | Posted on Thursday, March 10, 2005 - 7:05 am: | |
Denise, I agree with you on abortion. I felt a sickening lurch when I read that Cy and his wife had aborted their baby. I lost four of my grandchildren because abortion is so convenient. My second and third sons were not given a choice, their wives made the decision alone! I think of my first son, he was an oops when I was 17, and probably I would have been talked into abortion if it had been legal. Thank God it wasn't, my son is now a wonderful person and a good Christian family man.
I hate this subject and I hate that abortions are so casually given. We all need to cry out for these innocent babies who never got a chance to live, even if its only for a few days or weeks.
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Colleentinker
Registered user
Username: Colleentinker
Post Number: 1568
Registered: 12-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, March 10, 2005 - 8:19 am: | |
I am going to plainly ask all of us to stop dissecting the issue of abortion. I believe all of us agree that it is a terrible thing. But quite frankly it is no more terrible than divorce, spousal or child abuse, persistent indulgence in pornography, adultery, lacertaing another's reputation, alcoholism--an so forth.
Karen, I understand your deep pain and regret over the losses you've experienced, and praise God for you son! Denise, I have a small understanding of the terrible assualts and insults you have experienced in your life, and I honor you for clinging to your faith in God in spite of everything you've been through.
Honestly, there isn't one of us here who is free from terrible pain, both pain inflicted on us and pain that results from our own difficult experiences and decisions. We have absolutely no business deciding that one person's decision is more terrible than another's decision.
Bluntly, I have many things in my life I wish had been different--and I cannot say I've always been a victim. I wish I had never had to experience divorce. I wish my children could have grown up without the pain of their parents' divorce. All of us come to adulthood shaped, scarred, bruised by things over which we had no control. Those insults to our personalities shape us to be predisposed to react to others in self-protective ways that often hurt others. And sometimes this broken universe inflicts untenable situations upon us which leave us no good options.
This forum is to be a safe place for people to share their struggles, to encourage each other, and to hold each other up with prayer and love and support. In the body of Christ we all bear deep scars--the miracle is that God wastes NONE of them and redeems ALL of them when we submit them to Him. There is no sin or situation which is outside His redemption and healing.
Karen, God can heal the loss of your grandchildren, and you do not need to carry the burden of "fixing" the situation. Jesus alone can--and will--do that. Our responsibility is to surrender our anger and our hurt to Him and allow Him to bear the burden of dealing with the sin. And remember: the sin is not only in the other person; the sin is also in us: our anger and resentment is as deep a sin as the other person's decision might have been.
But here we are--all of us have been called by the sovereign God of the universe to enter the freedom of His mercy and forgiveness and to walk out of the darkness of an oppressive cult into the light of truth and grace. Our "job" now is to allow the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts and hands and mouths and minds with His love and forgiveness. We are to literally mediate the healing mercy of Jesus to one another, because we are literally the body of Christ. His literal presence is in us by the indwelling Holy Spirit.
Our calling is to carry out His work of reconciliation. We no longer have to decry the sins of society; our persistence in speaking truth and being accountable to one another will naturally reveal the evil of society's sins.
We are hopelessly broken sinners here on this forum--but we have been redeemed by our Father who awoke our hearts, called us to Himself, and made us part of His family through Jesus.
Our responsibillity before God is to allow Him to help us love each other for Him. It's not about us or our suffering. It's now about His glory, about our being living sacrifices allowing Jesus to touch us through each other.
Colleen |
Insideoutsider
Registered user
Username: Insideoutsider
Post Number: 30
Registered: 6-2002
| | Posted on Thursday, March 10, 2005 - 8:36 am: | |
Thanks Carol 2 and Colleen for your heartfelt words to Cy and his wife. I echo them. Having gone through losing two babies at 16 weeks, and finally delivering my third child at 30 weeks (and this was 34 years ago, when it was a miracle, remember the Kennedy baby) I know the pain of losing. I showed the diagnosis to my husband who is a pediatric endocrinologist, and he said that Cy's baby would not have lived. This is not an "abort on demand" situation. This is an extemely complex medical diagnosis. I think some of the harsh words are coming from pain that is subjective rather than objective. I reread the verses in Ephesians that set precedent for entering the forum and think that it might be beneficial if all who enter reread them on occasion. Let us remember to encouage and refresh one another(Philemon 7)as brothers and sisters in Christ. Jan Mace |
Flyinglady
Registered user
Username: Flyinglady
Post Number: 1173
Registered: 3-2004
| | Posted on Thursday, March 10, 2005 - 6:10 pm: | |
Colleen, Carol 2, Jan,
Thank you for expressing what I was thinking also.
We cannot undo the past and we do not know the future, so let us live today in the love Jesus has bestowed upon us and love one another as Jesus loves us. That is the way I understand what I have been reading in the Bible.
God is truly an awesome God to redeem the past each of us has. We are all sinners and yet God does redeem our past. THANK YOU JESUS.
Diana |
Riverfonz
Registered user
Username: Riverfonz
Post Number: 39
Registered: 3-2005
| | Posted on Thursday, March 10, 2005 - 6:38 pm: | |
Jan, I remember your husband. He was such a great teacher of pediatrics when I was in Medical school. Say hello to him for me, although he may not remember me. Also thanks for your thoughtful post above. Stan Ermshar Class of 76'B |
Denisegilmore
Registered user
Username: Denisegilmore
Post Number: 177
Registered: 10-2000
| | Posted on Thursday, March 10, 2005 - 9:09 pm: | |
Karenjw,
Only God Himself knows as I type this just how blessed this sister feels reading your words. Tears fill me with gladness and open Praise to God Almighty!
May God Himself forever remember your words of truth. And may all of God's Blessings see you for stating this:
" We all need to cry out for these innocent babies who never got a chance to live, even if its only for a few days or weeks."
Amen and Amen.
May His Peace rest in your heart forevermore! In Christ Jesus Name, this i pray for you.
In Christ our King Jesus.
denise
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Ric_b
Registered user
Username: Ric_b
Post Number: 214
Registered: 7-2004
| | Posted on Friday, March 11, 2005 - 10:50 am: | |
Colleen,
You have such a gift with words, but perhaps none more than your statement above:
quote:We are hopelessly broken sinners here on this forum--but we have been redeemed by our Father who awoke our hearts, called us to Himself, and made us part of His family through Jesus.
Our responsibillity before God is to allow Him to help us love each other for Him. It's not about us or our suffering. It's now about His glory, about our being living sacrifices allowing Jesus to touch us through each other.
Thank you for that beautiful reminder. |
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