Predator (23 page)

I
have a problem with gratitude. While I have so many things to be thankful for, I never seem to dwell on those much. I rarely talk to God about them. I dwell on the negatives in my life, and those are the things that occupy most of my prayers.

Today it occurred to me that God sees all of the suffering in the world, and then he sees me with my whiny little prayers that seem so urgent to me. Last night I got a cramp in my toe, and I couldn’t get it to go away. It literally occupied my every thought. I prayed and whined and put compresses on it, and asked God why.

But how does that sound to God? I tell him my foot hurts, and I beg him to make it feel better. He sees people who have amputated feet, people who are paralyzed, people who have flesh-eating bacteria on dying limbs. He hears their passionate prayers for healing, and then he hears mine. “God, my toe is really killing me. Can’t you fix it? I don’t want to hurt.” And he knows that my pain is nothing—absolutely nothing—compared to theirs.

I pray for my back pain, which can be significant for me. He hears my prayers, but he also hears those millions across the world from people with backs that have rendered them
quadriplegics, backs with debilitating nerve damage, backs that keep them doubled over, unable to look up. He feels the pain of all that suffering, and then he feels mine. While he’s compassionate, I can’t help wondering if he’s sad that I’m not more grateful that I don’t have cancer eating me from the inside out, that I can walk upright and move my hands and do the things I want.

I complain of having migraines, but there are people whose brain chemistry has been out-of-balance for years. I complain that my house isn’t big enough, yet there are people who sleep under bridges. I complain that my job is difficult and stressful, yet there are people who walk miles for water and do desperate things in order to support their families.

I complain about my church, how the air conditioning is too cold, how the pews are too hard. And God sees people across the world who are risking their lives to assemble together in underground home churches, so anxious to worship God that they’d give their lives for it.

I imagine it’s like spending time in a famine-ravaged country, where people walk around like skeletons, desperate for food. And then you come home to America and walk into your own home, where the pantries are stocked and the refrigerator is full, and your kids whine that there’s nothing to eat. It would be more than irritating. Yet that’s what God sees in us all the time. Yes, he still loves us, just like we love our own children when they’re ungrateful. I’m sure he also realizes that we don’t know how fortunate we are. Unless we’ve seen what he’s seen, how can we know that we sometimes sound like crybabies squealing in his ears?

If earth is a training ground for heaven, then what should we be doing here? Revelation says that thanksgiving and praise will be a huge element of our lives in heaven.
Maybe that’s because we’ll then be able to see clearly all the good things that God gave us, all the ways he worked strength and endurance and perseverance into our lives. All the ways he prepared us for our heavenly work. We’ll be overflowing with gratitude, because we’ll know all the close calls he protected us from, all the devastation, all the heartache, as well as the help he gave us, and we’ll learn how he used the things he allowed.

But we’re not supposed to wait until we get there. We’re supposed to train ourselves in thanksgiving now. “Pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus” (1 Thessalonians 5:17 – 18 NIV). “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God” (Philippians 4:6 NIV). “I will give thanks to the L
ORD
with my whole heart; I will recount all of your wonderful deeds” (Psalm 9:1 ESV). “Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving, and perform your vows to the Most High, and call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me” (Psalm 50:14 – 15 ESV).

So how do we keep our prayers from being narcissistic and self-centered? We take time to focus on how fortunate we are. I know a lady who has ALS, otherwise known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. Though her muscles no longer work (she’s paralyzed), and she can hardly hold her head up or speak, she manages to go to the local jail to do prison ministry once a week. She has hired troubled women (who have been in prison themselves) to care for her during the day. And most of what she asks them to do for her centers around Bible study and praising God. As they’re helping her, she’s helping them. These women say their time with her has changed their lives. This lady will minister to others and praise God
until her last breath. Through all her suffering (and it is extensive), her life is a testimony of praise and thanksgiving, because she knows Christ died to cleanse her of her sins, so that one day soon she’ll be raised to new life—completely healed, with an everlasting life to serve the God she served here on earth. And since thanksgiving is already a way of life for her here, she’ll enter his gates with even more thanksgiving, and live in joy and gratitude for eternity.

So let’s be more grateful for what we have, and in our pain, be thankful for how God will use that pain someday. Let’s remember those famous first words in
The Purpose Driven Life:
“It’s not about you.” If God never did another thing for us than send his Son to die a substitutionary death on the cross for us, so he could forgive us of our sins, he’d still deserve overwhelming gratitude. But he’s done so much more.

“The L
ORD’S
lovingkindnesses indeed never cease, For His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness. ‘The Lord is my portion,’ says my soul. ‘Therefore, I have hope in Him’” (Lamentations 3:22 – 24 NASB).

1. Do you have a profile on a social network? Has this book made you rethink what information you supply and whom you have contact with while online? Do you think social networking has had more of a positive or negative influence on your life? On society?

2. When Ryan is reluctant to make changes to GrapeVyne that would help protect its members from online predators, Krista tells him that by not taking action he might as well be a predator himself. Do you agree with her? What role does indifference play in the proliferation of evil?

3. Describe the different ways Krista and David cope with their grief. What negative effects do they each suffer as a result of their coping method? Do they eventually find solace and peace? If so, how?

4. Krista develops serious doubts about God for not interceding to protect Ella, and fears she will no longer be able to continue ministering to young girls. Do you think her fear is valid? Could her suffering eventually lead her to be a more effective witness, as Ryan suggests?
Can you think of someone whose suffering helped them proclaim God’s glory in a way they wouldn’t have been able to otherwise?

5. What good things is GrapeVyne used for in the book? Do you think Krista’s desire to shut it down completely because of online predators is justified? How do you think Christians should approach technology that can be used in a dangerous or inappropriate way?

6. Describe how Ryan changes throughout the course of the book. What does he value most when Krista first meets him? What does he do to prove his values have changed by the end? What causes his transformation?

7. The verse inscribed on Ella’s grave is 1 Corinthians 13:12: “For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then, face to face” (KJV). Do the characters eventually see any good result from their suffering? What questions are still left unanswered?

8. Has reading this book given you spiritual insight into personal suffering or doubt in your own life? If so, how has your view of these experiences changed?

Intervention

Double Minds

Soul Restoration

Emerald Windows

Restoration Series

1 |
Last Light

2 |
Night Light

3 |
True Light

4 |
Dawn’s Light

Cape Refuge Series

1 |
Cape Refuge

2 |
Southern Storm

3 |
River’s Edge

4 |
Breaker’s Reef

Newpointe 911

1 |
Private Justice

2 |
Shadow of Doubt

3 |
Word of Honor

4 |
Trial by Fire

5 |
Line of Duty

Sun Coast Chronicles

1 |
Evidence of Mercy

2 |
Justifiable Means

3 |
Ulterior Motives

4 |
Presumption of Guilt

Second Chances

1 |
Never Again Good-bye

2 |
When Dreams Cross

3 |
Blind Trust

4 |
Broken Wings

With Beverly LaHaye

1 |
Seasons Under Heaven

2 |
Showers in Season

3 |
Times and Seasons

4 |
Season of Blessing

Novellas

Seaside

Other Books

The Listener

The Gifted

The Heart Reader of Franklin High

The Gifted Sophomores

Covenant Child

Sweet Delights

A Novel

Terri Blackstock,

^#
1 Bestselling Suspense Author

Barbara Covington has one more chance to save her daughter from a devastating addiction, by staging an intervention. But when eighteen-year-old Emily disappears on the way to drug treatment—and her interventionist is found dead at the airport—Barbara enters her darkest nightmare of all.

Barbara and her son set out to find Emily before Detective Kent Harlan arrests her for a crime he is sure she committed. Fearing for Emily’s life, Barbara maintains her daughter’s innocence. But does she really know her anymore? Meanwhile, Kent has questions of his own. His gut tells him that this is a case of an addict killing for drugs, but as he gets to know Barbara, he begins to hope he’s wrong about Emily.

The panic level rises as the mysteries intensify: Did Emily’s obsession with drugs lead her to commit murder—or is she another victim of a cold-blooded killer?

Founded in 1931, Grand Rapids, Michigan-based Zondervan, a division of HarperCollins
Publishers
, is the leading international Christian communications company, producing best-selling Bibles, books, new media products, a growing line of gift products and award-winning children’s products. The world’s largest Bible publisher, Zondervan (
www.zondervan.com
) holds exclusive publishing rights to the
New International Version of the Bible
and has distributed more than 150 million copies worldwide. It is also one of the top Christian publishers in the world, selling its award-winning books through Christian retailers, general market bookstores, mass merchandisers, specialty retailers, and the Internet. Zondervan has received a total of 68 Gold Medallion awards for its books, more than any other publisher.

Free Online Resources at
www.zondervan.com/hello

Zondervan AuthorTracker:
Be notified whenever your favorite authors publish new books, go on tour, or post an update about what’s happening in their lives.