Glancing back is not pretty.
Following the root system is tricky, confusing, and messy.
Never mind trying to follow the branches – they’ve gone in so many directions it’s unclear if anyone has a complete list of where they’ve landed.
Descriptions on the branches read like someone tried to incorporate all of the ‘seven deadly sins’ – plus few – into one scraggly, tangled web of ancestral lineage.
Alcoholism. Promiscuity. Embezzlement. Abandonment. Affairs. Hasty marriages. Divorces. Children out of wedlock. Suicide. Jail, prison. Anti-God, anti-family, anti- ‘anything that resembles respectable living’. Cover ups, lies, secrets.
My physical blood line is one that could provide material for the raunchiest of soap operas for decades to come. As a teen, a psychology professional gave my life following summary statement: “This is a person that will only be successful as a professional criminal. Brilliant mind with no moral compass.” Hopeless. Useless. Aimless. Nothing beneficial to pass on to others.
Pause, pivot, look around.
Current landscape contains four grown children, three grandchildren.
Oldest child a retail store manager. Confident, secure, homeowner.
Second child successful Federal Attorney in one of the nation’s largest cities.
Third just received Ministerial license, leader in a ministry to high-risk youth.
And the youngest? Associate Pastor at an urban church serving a poverty and crime stricken community with help and hope.
The ‘hopeless life’ has become respected, sought after for Biblical wisdom, a ‘go to’ for those traveling difficult roads. Leading a ministry that has impacted tens of thousands of lives for more than 27 years.
While the journey has been anything but smooth, the current resting place is vibrant with the colors of a growing legacy of faith, service, healing, hope.
What was deemed as impossible by the intelligent talking head has become technicolor reality visible to any with eyes to see.
How?
A Blood transfusion.
Enter the Story of the Cross. Into the blood line, watch divine Blood flow to wash away all that was tainted and infuse all that is good. All that is Holy. All that brings hope. There is only one name, under heaven, given unto men by which they may be saved. And, there is only one river that flows from Calvary with the power to completely transform a life from hopeless, to hope giving.
His Blood line in my story line, changed everything.
Don’t let the talking heads and professional label-makers have the last word.
Let Him destroy the chains they tried to hang around your neck and your heart.
Let Him dip His brush into the vial of His love and write ‘this one is mine’ across every page of your story, every vein in your heart, every corner of your mind. At the Cross is hope, help, and new Blood.
[Rev. LoriJo Schepers has been in ministry for several decades, serving as pastor, on-air personality for a local Christian music station, and currently as Executive Director of Barnabas Ministries. She has been a writer since she could hold a pencil, her first publication at 15. She shares more of life and faith on her blog HopeScribe. She has four grown children and three special granddaughters. Her contact: lorijo@barnabasmin.org]
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One reply on “A Blood Transfusion”
Only God!!! Beautiful.
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