Empty Souls

FULL BARNS… EMPTY SOULS

 

“…I’ll say to myself, ‘You have plenty of good things laid up for

many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.’ But God said

to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from

you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’’’

(Luke 12:19-20, NIV)

 

Gretchen’s world changed one morning in 1982 when a drunk driver

forced her car into a fatal spin, hurtling it across the freeway, where

it exploded into a burning inferno. Her mother was instantly killed,

and Gretchen was miraculously saved from burning to death,

though she was dreadfully disfigured.

 

Before that dreadful day, Gretchen had led a sun-filled life.

Beautiful, wealthy, with an attentive husband, she seemed to be

living every girl’s dream. But in a moment she lost it all.

 

She was in a coma for six weeks. When she finally understood that

her face was virtually gone, she did not want anyone to see her.

She stayed in seclusion for seven years while she underwent more

than seventy operations. Even after all that surgery, her face and

body were deeply scarred. She now had only one arm and one eye.

Television was her only companion. She did not venture out for

fear of rejection and pain.1

 

Where once she had full barns, she now had an empty soul. But

it doesn’t have to be that way. Fortunately for Gretchen, one night

she happened to watch a Billy Graham crusade on TV and gave

her heart and broken life to Jesus. This totally changed her outlook.

Soon her despair turned to purpose… her hopelessness to hope.

She became a volunteer at a rehabilitation center and her

“disabilities gave her the credibility to reach out to others.

There are still scars on her body but there is joy within her soul.

Those who know her best speak of the ‘transcendent glow of her

inner strength.’”

 

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, please help me to take time to

nurture my soul so that my spiritual cup is filled and running over,

thereby making me a blessing to every life I touch. Gratefully,

in Jesus’ name. Amen.”

 

1. Billy Graham, “Hope for the Troubled Heart” (Dallas: Word Publishing, 1991), pp. 41