Prayers for Maddy. May God enfold her in his love
Well, while I have not met with her in person since she was ten or eleven, before that I could tell she was long a willing believer in Jesus Christ, so I like to think that He will. ^-^
Oddly enough, despite my sentiments above about the difficulties of high school,. it was actually my senior year that was the most bearable for me by far. And the least was the first year in 9th grade. So many troubling times I can remember during that first year alone at both school and around my neighborhood with the friends that I knew at the time, and I shudder to think sometimes, what might have become of me had I faltered in certain times of temptation to vengeance or peer pressure situation during the 9th and 10th grade, before finally coming to find the one most important thing I had been missing all this time in the 11th grade - Jesus Christ Himself. It was one thing to believe God existed, but what good can it do us ultimately if we still miss His Son?
That's why I can't look really look down on those who do not yet believe, and not only that but also seem to willingly live a hedonistic and selfish lifestyle. For I was once one of them. Basically, we all were one of them, once, and still struggle with tendencies towards that old, troubled life even now. Why should they be left in the dark ultimately while we were graciously saved? Perhaps even a seemingly perfectly well-raised lady like Maddy went through similar troubling phases of life that I and probably many others here did in our teen years. But in the end, God will save. Not just for eternity, but in many ways in the here and now. I even like to think that the theology of universal reconciliation - that in the end, if God's will is to save everyone, then come one way or another, whether in life or in death, He WILL do just that, and through everyone coming to kneel before Jesus Christ His Son - might be true. I certainly do not think this theology is in any way blasphemous or heretical. I simply do not believe it to be the truth as of the present on account of its seeming lack of Biblical evidence in comparison to conditional immortality (that only the saved will be immortal in the end, and that the unsaved must be literally destroyed in the lake of fire rather than live forever in some kind of physical and/or emotional torment, because the Bible gives almost zero indication that the human soul is inherently immortal, as opposed to being subject to death). But if universal reconciliation turns out to be the truth in the end, I would be grateful. I certainly do not loathe the thought of seeing everyone ultimately saved and redeemed, even if forcefully, through Christ. As I said before, the only difference in the end between we who believe and those who yet do not, is the realization of Jesus Christ. Who am I to personally condemn them yet believe myself suitable for eternal life?
Sorry, suddenly thinking of the possible struggles Maddy might have been facing in the last few years of high school - and what she may be up against this year as a senior - just led me into all of the above musings. That's kind of how I often get ever since healing from the disease of scrupulosity about ten years ago, thank the Lord for that.
