God's Ways

I can't help but feel great sadness for Cindy Winters over the loss of her husband and the father of her 2 girls. My heart goes out to her and I've been praying for her all day. I wonder why God took her husband and not mine. Because you see, when Andy was pastoring in Richland, Washington in the early 1980's, a similar situation could have happened to him. But in our case, it turned out differently because God chose to intervene.

Here's the story.

A woman had attended our church a number of times, then met with Andy for counseling. She was living with Warren, a man who was abusive to her. Andy advised her to leave that dangerous situation. She must have gone home and told him because the next Sunday he came to church looking for Andy. He came in the front entrance of the church into the foyer.
I was there with one or two of my girls who were pretty little then so I witnessed the whole thing. Warren came in, looked around and asked where Pastor Andy's office was. Someone told him it was in the front of the church and he started up the aisle toward the office. Andy wasn't there, so he came back to the foyer. He was pretty agitated and grabbed a guy who was standing there. He pulled out a knife and held it to the guy's chest, yelling for everyone to stay where they were and not move. He poked the guy with his knife a couple of times, remarkably not injuring the guy at all. The knife blade finally hit a button on the guy's shirt and snapped off. At that point, a police officer who attended our church moved in and was able to grab Warren and subdue him.

So where was Andy if he wasn't in his office? Out of all the many years before or since that incident, it was the only Sunday he EVER stayed home. He was sick that day. But we firmly believe it was God's protecting hand upon us.

So why were we protected and not the Winters family? I can't pretend to know the answer, but ours is a walk of faith. I choose to believe God has a plan for each of us and that nothing that happens to us is ever wasted. He says in Isaiah 55:9-10: "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the LORD. "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts."

He also says in Psalm 116:15: "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints."