Mabel has lived 25 years in a state-run institution for the elderly who have no funds. Her roommates scream. They do not talk intelligibly. Mabel is 89, wears a big hearing aid, is blind and has a cancer that has partially eaten her face so that she drools constantly.
Yet Mabel is grateful.
Her heart is full of gratitude and her attitude is full of grace. When asked what she thought about all day there in her dark, nearly soundless, world with the dank stench of death and disease all around her, she answered: "I think about my Jesus, and how good He's been to me." And then she broke into this song:
"Jesus is all the world to me, my life, my joy, my all;
He gives me strength from day to day, without Him I would fall.
When I am sad I to Him I go; no other one can cheer me so.
When I am sad He makes me glad, He's my friend."*
Are you reaching for a tissue? Do you feel pangs of conviction? Or do you have ice water running through your veins?
How often do we get to see this kind of spiritual power and contentment? Is Billy Graham endued with any more spiritual power than Mabel, who not only witnesses to Jesus, but walks as He walked: "To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps” (I Peter 2:21).
Mabel encourages and exemplifies Jesus' farewell Words: "In this world you may have trouble, but take heart for I have overcome the world!" (John 16:33).
How can I do the same?
(Source: The Life You’ve Always Wanted, John Ortberg)
